Jude Law is ready to be challenged by screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes.
Law shared in an interview with Vanity Fair that he is set to work with “Challengers” scribe Kuritzkes on a Mike Nichols-inspired film.
“I’m developing a project with Justin Kuritzkes, who just wrote ‘Challengers,’” Law said. “The thing that bonded us was Mike Nichols. I said, ‘I think this is a Mike Nichols film.’ He was like, ‘Well, you would know.’ He felt the same when he went into ‘Challengers.’”
While Law kept the details of their upcoming project under wraps, he did reveal there would be a “sexual-social intercourse” element, much like in tense love triangle dramedy “Challengers” and late filmmaker Nichols’ famed works. Nichols directed Law in the 2004 romantic quadrangle drama “Closer.”
“If you’re true, if you get the tone right, there is something about that kind of intelligence and honest and sexual-social intercourse that is just irresistible in filmmaking and in storytelling,” Law said. “Mike is kind of the cherry on the cake of it — you don’t get them that often. But to emulate, to try and be inspired by that kind of filmmaking, we shouldn’t lose that just because it’s not happening regularly nowadays.”
Law pointed to the rising box office success of “Challengers,” suggesting there seems to be an audience demand for movies for adults. Even if studios don’t want to make them anymore.
“Look at ‘Challengers’ right now,” Law said. “It stands out against ‘Furiosa,’ stands out against a lot of the big summer hopes like ‘The Fall Guy.’ Everyone’s still talking about it. You’ve got to go, well, that wasn’t trying — that was being true to itself. Which is a big Mike [Nichols] message: Don’t force it, be it.”
Law admitted that at times across his decades-spanning career, there were projects of his that did “force it” upon audiences — and subsequently fell flat, like “Alfie.”
“It was probably overpriced, it didn’t perform, and I suddenly hit my first brick wall where you realize, ‘Oh, it’s not plain sailing,’” the “Firebrand” actor said of realizing his career couldn’t just coast. “That was the first time on the back of a really great run where something really flopped and cost some money — or I got paid probably too much for it. Then you go, ‘Oh, OK, there’s a business behind this.’ There have been other periods where suddenly you’re not the bright young thing anymore, and you are trying to find your feet against people who have had hit after hit — or their next nomination.”
While Law is next joining the “Star Wars” franchise with Disney+ series “The Skeleton Crew,” directed by Jon Watts, his upcoming collaborator Kuritzkes has his next film already slated. Kuritzkes wrote another upcoming Luca Guadagnino film, “Queer,” a William S. Burroughs adaptation anticipated to debut at the Venice Film Festival. He is also penning an adaptation of “City on Fire.”
IndieWire reached out to representatives for both Law and Kuritzkes for additional details on their film collaboration.
