The Torino Film Commission quietly dropped a casting call this week. It didn't scream headlines. It didn't need to. All it said—between the lines—was this: Luca Guadagnino is coming home.
They're looking for extras. Northern Italians, specifically. Production will roll through July and August, wrapping in September. Just in time for Guadagnino to stroll into the Venice Film Festival with After the Hunt, his prestige drama starring Andrew Garfield and Julia Roberts. But what he's filming this summer? That's the part nobody's certain about.
It could be Separate Rooms, an adaptation of Pier Vittorio Tondelli's haunting final novel. Or maybe it's Artificial, a Silicon Valley fever dream centered on OpenAI's Sam Altman. One is rooted in grief and memory, the other in code and ambition. Both are very, very Guadagnino.
Let's start with the literary one.
Published in 1989, Separate Rooms follows Leo, a thirtysomething Italian writer paralyzed by grief after losing his lover, Thomas—a young German musician. The novel is less a linear narrative than a series of memory spirals, shifting between past intimacy and present absence. Josh O'Connor was attached but quietly exited, likely to star in Joel Coen's next film (Jack of Spades). Léa Seydoux is still onboard, reportedly. And if Guadagnino is indeed filming in Italy, this intimate Eurodrama feels like the natural fit. Quiet. Internal. Achingly cinematic.
But then—there's Artificial.
This is the curveball. THR broke the story earlier this year: Guadagnino would direct a satire-ish biopic about OpenAI's Sam Altman, with Andrew Garfield in the lead and Anora breakout Yura Borisov co-starring. The script? Penned by SNL alum Simon Rich. Locations? Italy and San Francisco. The tone? Reportedly strange, fast-moving, and—if rumors are true—just unhinged enough to work.
It's hard to imagine a more 2025 story than Sam Altman: a generational disruptor wrapped in TED Talk mystique, waltzing through the wreckage of modern tech. And in Guadagnino's hands? This could be something between The Social Network and Under the Silver Lake—disorienting, gorgeous, existential.
It's worth noting Artificial landed on his desk after Sgt. Rock, his DC Studios WWII monster mashup with Colin Farrell, collapsed mid-development. Guadagnino didn't sulk. He pivoted. Fast. Found a story. Started moving.
The man doesn't wait around. He collects ideas like souvenirs—American Psycho, Buddenbrooks, Lord of the Flies, Leading Men—then shelves them until the timing feels right. He's a maximalist with monk-like discipline. And sometimes, he just likes to keep us guessing.
Whatever this summer's shoot turns out to be, here's what's locked in:
— Filming begins in July 2025
— Wraps by September 2025
— Guadagnino's next film, After the Hunt, premieres at the Venice Film Festival in early September
Will it be a tender literary adaptation, soaked in memory and melancholy? Or a surreal tech fable starring Garfield as Altman, rewriting the gospel of AI? Or something else entirely?
Who knows. Guadagnino plays close to the vest. But one thing's clear: whether he's channeling the loss of a lover or the ambition of a tech messiah—he's not slowing down.
Not now. Not ever.
