'Challengers' star Josh O'Connor rumored to star Luca Guadagnino's new gay project

According to Variety, O’Connor may star in Guadagnino’s new drama Separate Rooms, which is adapted from the eponymous Italian novel by Pier Vittorio Tondelli, who died from AIDS-related complications in 1991, two years after the book’s release. O’Connor is allegedly in discussion to star as the Italian writer Leo, who is mourning the loss of his boyfriend, Thomas.

Although no official announcement has been made yet, sources say that O’Connor has already started studying Italian. The official cast list is likely to be revealed any day now, as Guadagnino recently told the magazine Venerdì that filming will start “soon.”

The plot for Separate Rooms, titled Camere separate in Italian, follows the 30-something Leo as he travels around Milan, Paris, London, and France. Meanwhile, Thomas is a Berlin-based pianist who’s young and temporarily living in Paris when he first meets Leo.

The book the film is based on takes place in three different parts, called “movements,” that alternate between the flashbacks of the long affair and the reflections of their relationship through their respective loneliness. Most of the book details Leo’s mourning as he reminisces during his travels to England and in the U.S.

Guadagnino is likely producing the film with Italy’s Lorenzo Mieli under his deal with Fremantle, and the screenplay is said to be written by Francesca Ranieri, who worked with Guadagnino on the HBO-Sky TV show We Are Who We Are.

As of now, no representatives from any party have further confirmed nor denied any involvement in the project.