After starring as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, Timothée Chalamet is in talks to play a New York City icon of a distinct sort. The Dune star is presently circling the position of legendary ping pong champion Marty Reisman in Marty Supreme. Variety experiences that Josh Safdie will direct the movie for A24.

Chalamet is in closing talks to star as Reisman, who began out as a ping pong hustler in the Forties earlier than profitable a number of worldwide competitions, serving because the opening act for the Harlem Globetrotters, and writing a best-selling autobiography, The Money Player: The Confessions of America’s Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler. The pic is ready to be directed by Josh Safdie, who has not too long ago gone solo after years of collaboration along with his brother Benny Safdie. It will likely be Josh’s first movie since his Netflix hit Uncut Gems, and his first solo directorial effort since his 2008 debut The Pleasure of Being Robbed.

What Other Movies Are About Ping Pong?

Although tennis has lengthy been a favourite sport of filmmakers – simply see this 12 months’s romantic drama Challengers – its miniature, indoor cousin has by no means fairly achieved the identical cinematic profile. The best-known movie to characteristic the game is 1994’s Baby Boomer epic Forrest Gump, in which one of many title character’s many Zelig-like exploits is a stint as a champion US ping pong participant who will get despatched to China as a part of President Richard Nixon‘s “ping pong diplomacy” with the burgeoning superpower. A small handful of different movies have used the sport as a key plot level. 2007’s Balls of Fury stars Dan Fogler as a washed-up ex-ping pong prodigy who will get recruited by the FBI to enter a lethal underground desk tennis event run by crimelord Feng (Christopher Walken). The 2014 indie comedy Ping Pong Summer facilities round a teen boy in 1985 Maryland who trains for a ping pong event with the assistance of a former champ (Susan Sarandon). In Asia, the place the game is extraordinarily widespread, quite a lot of movies have been primarily based round it, together with 2002’s Ping Pong, primarily based on the favored manga sequence; the 2012 South Korean drama As One; and the 2017 Japanese romantic comedy Mixed Doubles.

In addition to directing, Safdie can even write Marty Supreme with frequent collaborator Ronald Bronstein, who additionally co-wrote and edited Uncut Gems and Good Time. The duo can even produce the movie alongside Eli Bush and Anthony Katagas.

Chalmet is presently in talks to star in Marty Supreme; no manufacturing begin date has but been introduced. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.