“Euphoria” may have been renewed for a third season but a number of its cast members seem to be doing well, maybe even better, without it. Zendaya has teamed up with director Luca Guadagnino for the spicy sports dramedy “Challengers” while Jacob Elordi is Elvis in Sofia Coppola’s biopic “Priscilla” with Priscilla Presley herself as one of the executive producers. Big steps up, dare we say?
The trailer for “Challengers” dropped today, June 21, and the internet is buzzing with excitement and tweeting about that one screencap of Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor’s characters kissing Zendaya’s character’s neck—at the same time. You can always count on Guadagnino to make his film a little steamy.
So what is it actually about? It follows the story of tennis prodigy turned coach Tashi (Zendaya) who transforms her husband Art (Faist) into a tennis champion. But after a losing streak, Tashi makes Art play a low-league challenger event where he’s forced to reunite with his former rival Patrick (O’Connor)—who also happens to be Tashi’s former boyfriend and their former best friend. That’s a lot of formers, yes, so you already know that drama will ensue.
But what really piqued our interest is how Guadagnino teased that its complex love triangle has slightly queer undertones. Tension!
we may never recover pic.twitter.com/grXN1KjweX
— Letterboxd (@letterboxd) June 20, 2023
“Priscilla,” on the other hand, dropped its poster today revealing Elordi’s transformation into Elvis and Cailee Spaeny’s into Priscilla. The film is based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir “Elvis and Me” which chronicled her romance with the King of Rock and Roll. Priscilla was only 14 when she first caught then 24-year-old Elvis’ eye. With Coppola at the helm, we’re excited to get a woman’s perspective on what seems to be a “predatory” relationship. We didn’t get to see much of that in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.”
Sofia Coppola’s PRISCILLA. Starring Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi. Trailer tomorrow 💌 pic.twitter.com/o66JkWDPlA
— Priscilla (@PriscillaMovie) June 20, 2023
When news about Elordi’s casting first came out, some netizens doubted whether he could pull it off. But Coppola set those fears aside when she told Vogue, “I thought nobody was gonna look quite like Elvis, but Jacob has that same type of magnetism. He’s so charismatic, and girls go crazy around him, so I knew he could pull off playing this type of romantic icon. But we’re talking before we’ve even started filming, so I can’t get too deep into it.”
The trailer is set to be released tomorrow so we’ll get to judge it for ourselves soon.
Art by Ella Lambio
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