With last year's Suspiria, director Luca Guadagnino created a sumptuous, sensual fever dream featuring three separate, equally dynamite Tilda Swinton characters and an all-time performance from Dakota Johnson. It was weird, artsy, spectacular, and roughly 17 people went to see it in theaters, not counting the friends and family screening. (That $2 million domestic box office, I cry every time.) But there's no denying Guadagnino is still a force behind the camera since his Call Me By Your Name snagged three Oscar noms in 2017, which means the news of the filmmaker developing an eight-episode series at HBO is still highly intriguing. Observer's initial report notes that Guadagnino will direct the first two episodes of We Are Who We Are, which is based on the 2010 Kesha song of the same name.
I'm kidding. (But imagine?) We Are Who We Are will actually be set on an army base in Italy and follow two teenagers named Fraser Wilson and Caitlin Harper. The two friends' acquaintances assume they are a couple, but "Fraser is actually missing his friend from home, Mark, while also developing an innocent romantic connection with an older soldier named Jason." The description definitely gives off shades of the innocent yet age-unequal summer courtship between Timothee Chalamet's Elio and Armie Hammer's Oliver in Call Me By Your Name.
The series will reportedly begin production in May and film through October. Guadagnino is co-writing the script along with Paolo Giordano (The Solitude of Prime Numbers) and Francesca Manieri (Daughter of Mine). It's a pretty no-brainer move for the writer/direct. If you've watched the 2019 preview for HBO, you know the premium network is currently in the business of picking up the highest of profile projects. While HBO isn't the number one spot for "here's a fuck ton of money, do what you want"—that would be Netflix—but it certainly offers creators freedom. We Are What We Are isn't going to replace the dragon-sized phenomenon hole left by Game of Thrones, but it will most likely be Guadagnino's vision through and through.
