Timothée Chalamet is taking on another biopic, but this time, he’s trading singing for ping pong slinging.
The actor, who is next portraying Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown,” is in final negotiations to star in and produce Josh Safdie‘s “Marty Supreme” biopic based on the life of professional ping pong player Marty Reisman.
Chalamet will portray the title character “Marty Supreme” in the feature based on Reisman’s sports legacy. Reisman won 22 major ping pong titles from 1946 to 2002, and five bronze medals at the World Table Tennis Championships across his career. He also made history as the oldest player to win an open national competition in a racket sport while competing in the United States National Hardbat Championship. He died in 2012.
“Marty Supreme” is expected to be adapted from Reisman’s 1974 autobiography “The Money Player: The Confessions of America’s Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler.” His life was also part of TV documentary “Fact or Fiction: The Life and Times of a Ping Pong Hustler” that was released in 2014.
“Marty Supreme” is written by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein, who both produce alongside Eli Bush and Anthony Katagas and A24. The company is also producing Benny Safdie’s MMA biopic “The Smashing Machine” starring Dwayne Johnson as Mark Kerr.
“Marty Supreme” will be Safdie’s first film since “Uncut Gems.” Chalamet was previously rumored to be starring in Safdie’s yet-untitled Netflix film co-written with his brother Benny Safdie. Adam Sandler was set to be the lead alongside Megan Thee Stallion, with the film taking place in the world of sports memorabilia.
“Marty Supreme” will be Safdie’s second solo directing project after his 2008 debut “The Pleasure of Being Robbed.” Lead star Chalamet previously wrote a tribute to Josh and Benny Safdie in 2019, praising how the two filmmakers “pull none of [their] punches” onscreen.
“The New York directing duo have taken it upon themselves to keep alive the mantle of gritty and raucously interior inner-city films built by spiritual kin like Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee. The pair have continuously put out contemporary, raw and untethered work over the last decade, each film building on the traits of the prior, but never once sacrificing their innate grittiness,” Chalamet wrote. “You are best off simply expecting the unexpected.”
Variety first reported the news, which A24 confirmed on Twitter.
