Dune star Timothée Chalamet goes from sand to sport in the upcoming ping pong film Marty Supreme, made by the co-director of Uncut Gems.
Timothée Chalamet will star in Marty Supreme, a ping pong movie that is set to be directed by Josh Safdie. After starring in two epic Dune movies (and with Dune: Messiah set to come), Chalamet has chosen a change of pace and scale with his latest film, a biopic of a table tennis hustler turned champion.
Although the Safdie Brothers are no longer a fillmmaking duo, they’re still connected by a seeming love of sports biopics. After making Good Time and Uncut Gems together, the duo split and are now working on separate sports biopics for A24. Benny is directing The Smashing Machine, an MMA drama featuring Dwayne Johnson, while Josh now has Chalamet signed up for this ping pong drama. Let’s not also forget that Josh has an untitled baseball project in the works, too, which is set to reunite him with his Uncut Gems collaborator, Adam Sandler.
Production on that one is said to be subject to the whims of the baseball season, so it could be a way off, especially now the project is likely behind this ping pong film on Safdie’s slate.
Marty Supreme is based on the life of Marty Reisman, a legendary champion of the sport.
‘Reisman, who died in 2012, was a table tennis champion who started his career as a hustler in Manhattan, playing for bets and prize money,’ Variety writes. ‘He won 22 major ping pong titles from 1946 to 2002 and won five bronze medals at the World Table Tennis Championships. At 67, he competed in the United States National Hardbat Championship and became the oldest player to win an open national competition in a racket sport.’
This one has been in the works for a while, with Chalamet openly chatting about it last year. Perhaps the original plan was for both brothers to co-direct, but that’s certainly not the case now. As for Chalamet, it look like another smart step for an actor who’s building a successful career out of hopping between lead roles in successful franchises and smaller, artistically-credible projects with esteemed filmmakers.
There’s no release date for Marty Supreme yet, but when we hear more, we’ll let you know.
