AFTER starring as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, Dune star Timothée Chalamet is in talks to play a New York City icon of a different kind. 
He is currently circling the role of legendary ping pong champion Marty Reisman in Marty Supreme.
According to Variety, Josh Safdie will direct the film for A24.
Chalamet is in final talks to star as Reisman, who started out as a ping pong hustler in the 1940s before winning multiple international competitions, serving as 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 set to be directed by Josh Safdie, who has recently gone solo after years of collaboration with his brother Benny Safdie. It will be Josh’s first film since his Netflix hit Uncut Gems, and his first solo directorial effort since his 2008 debut The Pleasure of Being Robbed.
Although tennis has long been a favorite sport of filmmakers – just see this year’s romantic drama Challengers- its miniature, indoor cousin has never quite achieved the same cinematic profile. The best-known film to feature the sport is 1994’s Baby Boomer epic Forrest Gump, in which one of the title character’s many Zelig-like exploits is a stint as a champion US ping pong player who gets sent to China as part of President Richard Nixon’s “ping pong diplomacy” with the burgeoning superpower. A small handful of other films have used the game as a key plot point. 2007’s Balls of Fury stars Dan Fogler as a washed-up ex-ping pong prodigy who gets recruited by the FBI to enter a deadly underground table tennis tournament run by crimelord Feng (Christopher Walken). The 2014 indie comedy Ping Pong Summer centers around a teen boy in 1985 Maryland who trains for a ping pong tournament with the help of a former champ (Susan Sarandon). In Asia, where the sport is extremely popular, a number of films have been based around it, including 2002’s Ping Pong, based on the popular manga series; the 2012 South Korean drama As One; and the 2017 Japanese romantic comedy Mixed Doubles.
In addition to directing, Safdie will also write Marty Supreme with frequent collaborator Ronald Bronstein, who also co-wrote and edited Uncut Gems and Good Time. The duo will also produce the film alongside Eli Bush and Anthony Katagas.
Chalmet is currently in talks to star in Marty Supreme; no production start date has yet been announced.
Stay tuned to Collider for future updates. (Source: collider.com)
(ROHN ROMULO)