Call Me By Your Name's Luca Guadagnino in talks for Lord Of The Flies

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Call Me By Your Name's Luca Guadagnino in talks for Lord Of The Flies
Photo: Matthew Lewis

According to Entertainment Weekly, Call Me By Your Name and Suspiria director Luca Guadagnino is “in negotiations” with Warner Bros. to direct an adaptation of William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies—arguably the best book about kids trying to kill each other from before every other book was about kids trying to kill each other. No writer is attached, but EW notes that this adaptation is coming from a new production company formed by writers Lindsey Beer, Nicole Perlman, and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (the latter two worked on Captain Marvel).

We heard back in 2017 that a gender-swapped version of the story was in the works, with a group of girls getting stuck on an island instead of a group of boys (like in the book), but EW says Guadagnino’s version (assuming it happens) will be more like the original book—but with “a more contemporary take.” That probably means the kids will have smartphones now, so they can just call for help instead of savagely trying to kill each other.

14 Comments

  • lennyvalentin-av says:

    I watched the original black-and-white movie version of Lord of the Flies with my dad back when I was just a kid. I dunno how old I could have been – not particularly, 8-10 or so perhaps, because the scene with the monster scared the bejeezus out of me. The ending was also very startling. I can still remember how I felt, watching the kids chase each other, out for blood, and they run out on the beach and what met them there was as much a shock and a relief to me as it was to the kids.Goddamn. What a book. I read it later, when I was high school age as I recall.

    • ghostjeff-av says:

      Umm, SPOILER (if that’s necessary). By “monster” do you mean when the dead pilot pops up? If so, yeah, that was a good jump scare. 

      • lennyvalentin-av says:

        Yeah, spoiler for a 60 year old book or something like that 😀 but yes. The pilot’s fluttering parachute is the original monster, and then they find his dead body and realize there isn’t a monster, it’s just cloth they’ve been scared of. But the boys-gone-native don’t want to believe them and then the kid with glasses dies (is killed? I don’t recall the details), and everything goes all pearshaped from there.

        • gussiefinknottle1934-av says:

          Poor Piggy. As far as I remember watching the colour version as a child (on TV from about half way through, thus with no build up) was the first time I saw another child killed on screen in a film. That memory is still pretty clear, that image/idea haunted me for days

  • captain-splendid-av says:

    I don’t know if we another remake so soon. Jack just got elected POTUS back in 2016.

  • bigbydub-av says:

    Made special arrangements to see “Call Me By Your Name” before the Oscars were announced.  Yikes.

  • ghostjeff-av says:

    William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies—arguably the best book about kids trying to kill each other from before every other book was about kids trying to kill each other.”Track down “The Butterfly Revolution.” No it’s not better than LOTF, but it was a staple of banned books-lists in the ‘60s. Has some curio-appeal.

    • frankwalkerbarr-av says:

      Also the cult 1968 movie “if…” (featuring a pre-Clockwork Orange Malcolm McDowell). 

  • heatherbee-av says:

    They would really have their work cut out for them if they want to do a gender swap. Boys and girls process death and violence in very different- just as frightening- ways. I’d rather see a new story about girls than a quick “His name is now Jane” substitution piece. Girls deserve their own well-considered story. They’re not just boys with girl parts.

  • adam-k9-av says:

    Oh, god, they’re not all going to end up fucking peaches, are they? Given the sheer awfulness of “Call Me By Your Name (because I’m a narcissistic douchebag, too)“, the Golding estate should take out a court order against Guadagnino, pronto. 

  • tekkactus-av says:

    I can kinda get down for this if we get Suspiria Guadagnino and not Call Me By Your Name Guadagnino.

  • bobsmiththeeldercommentor-av says:

    I remember loving this book as a kid. I loved all of the kiddie survival books like My Side of the Mountain and Hatchet and read a lot of real life style survival manuals. This book though, I remember always liking the first bit, where they try and make a society and figure out survival but the last bit always kind of cheesed me off a little. Young me was all, “Come on guys! You’ve got this chance to live in paradise! Why do you screw it up!?” Also, am I the only who thought they were stranded on the island because of a nuclear war starting up or was that just my mid-1980’s kid mind projecting?

  • davise-av says:

    Oh god please no. On all counts. On yet another film on this old book. And on that director doing anything outside of his very limited arthouse lane.Maybe he can have Tilda Swinton dress up in bad makeup as all of the boys and lamely try to pretend they aren’t her in costume, for some reason. Genius!

  • soylent-gr33n-av says:

    Gender swapped? So a bunch of private school girls get marooned on an island, and say mean, hurtful things until most of them run away crying?

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