Timothée Chalamet may be on the verge of an Oscar nomination for his transformation into Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown (and yes, I say that based purely on the trailer – what of it?), but he doesn’t seem content to rest on his laurels even now: to wit, his forthcoming part in a zippy drama about a pro ping pong player, directed by Good Time and Uncut Gems’s Josh Safdie and co-starring a certain Academy Award-winning wellness mogul.
Penned by the filmmaker alongside his frequent collaborator Ronald Bronstein, and co-produced by Chalamet and beloved indie label A24, the new release will be titled Marty Supreme, and is, per reports, loosely inspired by ping-pong player Marty Reisman. Born in '30s Manhattan, he began playing table tennis on the Lower East Side, competing for bets and prizes, before becoming the US men’s singles champion. His memoir, The Money Player: The Confessions of America’s Greatest Table Tennis Player and Hustler, was published in 1974.
While plot details for the film remain under wraps, sources close to the production have confirmed that this account of Marty’s rise will be a fictionalized original story rather than a conventional biopic. With Safdie at the helm, you would, of course, expect nothing else.
Naturally, Chalamet will take the lead, but on August 28, it was revealed that none other than Gwyneth Paltrow would be joining him in a yet-to-be-disclosed role. It’s a thrilling move from the Goop founder, who’s taken a step back from the big screen in recent years – she was last seen in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame as well as in Netflix’s The Politician.
And now, the first images (yes, plural) have emerged from the set and… well, they’re surprising, to say the least, featuring Chalamet as we’ve never seen him before, with steel-rimmed glasses, a mustache, and an off-kilter wardrobe. Whatever ’40s-era, Uncut Gems-esque, heart-pumping, mile-a-minute romp we’re in for, consider me sold.
This post first appeared in British Vogue.
