Audrey Hepburn. Photo: Getty
Algerian-Sicilian Luca Guadagnino has another movie in the works. The Oscar-nominated director, who made his mark with Call Me By Your Name, which saw Timothée Chalamet shoot to stardom, and later I am Love with Tilda Swinton, The Bigger Splash with Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, and Dakota Fanning; is set to next direct a biopic on Audrey Hepburn. The role of Hepburn will be played by Rooney Mara, who will also produce the film. The American actor, famed for her roles in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Carol, is already something of a doppelgänger for the ’50s actor who starred in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, My Fair Lady, and Roman Holiday, and won an Emmy, Oscar, Tony, and Grammy. Hepburn worked with UNICEF helping children in Africa, South America, and Asia, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992. She was a friend of couturier Hubert de Givenchy, once stating, “It was Hubert de Givenchy who gave me a look, a genre a silhouette. Dressed by him, I’m not afraid of anything.”
“To me, cinema is like having a comfortable blanket across your knees for warmth,” Guadagnino shared with Vogue Arabia. The director cites the work of directors Nagisa Oshima, Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz lang, Roberto Rossellini, and Jean-Luc Godard as formative. Born in Palermo to an Algerian mother and Sicilian father, Guadagnino eventually moved to Rome to study literature and film history. He critiqued movies for the newspaper Il Manifesto. While directing his colleagues, he boldly wrote Swinton with an offer to collaborate. His persistence manifested their relationship, with Guadagnino commenting, “The quest of my life has always been the pursuit of kindred spirits.” While there is no specific hook yet revealed for his biopic on Hepburn, it will be interesting to observe the chemistry between the director and his latest muse in the role of one of the world’s enduring love affairs with an actress of the silver screen.
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