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EXCLUSIVE: A24’s Timothée Chalamet movie Marty Supreme, about ping-pong prodigy Marty Reisman, is one of the few blue-chip movies on offer at this week’s American Film Market in Las Vegas. It’s also shaping up to be the most expensive.
Word from buyers this past week has been that the movie — which is filming in New York — comes with an eyebrow raising $90M budget. We hear that’s exaggerated, however, and that $70M gross is more accurate.
That still makes the project the most expensive new package on sale at this year’s AFM and makes it A24’s joint most-expensive production to date alongside Dwayne Johnson starrer The Smashing Machine, which is in post-production (and is another ‘sports biopic’ that doesn’t obviously scream big-budget). Both movies are directed by a Safdie brother: Marty Supreme by Josh, and Smashing Machine by Benny. Both previously teamed on A24’s Uncut Gems and Good Time.
It’s a sign of A24’s ambitions that they have their two most expensive films to date in production at the same time. The company is scaling up and has even more ambitious projects coming in the near future, we hear. Alex Garland’s Civil War is understood to be the company’s third-biggest film to date.
But it’s also an interesting market evolution that indie darling A24 has the AFM’s biggest new project. That would have traditionally been the domain of an action project from a Lionsgate, AGC or other brawnier studio. Why are there so few bigger budget packages this year? Some sources think it’s due to a lack of options and engagement from the U.S. theatrical sector. To hit big international sales numbers there usually needs to be a US theatrical assurance. We don’t know what the domestic commitment is from A24 on Marty Supreme but at least it has one baked in and from a very savvy marketer.
The original screenplay written by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein is based loosely on Marty Reisman’s life, set in the world of 1950s ping-pong culture. Reisman was known to be unconventional in the sport, yet won two U.S. Men’s Singles Championships in 1958 and 1960 and more than 20 international and national titles. He became famous for mastering the hardbat style, a traditional style of table tennis that uses a racket without a sponge layer to emphasize control and spin over speed and power. His mastery of the sport earned him a reputation as one of table tennis’ last greats of that era.
On the face of it, some buyers have questioned why a ‘sports biopic’ about a ping-pong player should come with such a price tag. The answer we hear from sources close to the project is that it’s not being mounted as a traditional biopic or sports drama. Set against a politically tumultuous 1950s, the film is instead being envisioned as a fast-paced, globetrotting adventure-comedy in the vein of Wolf of Wall Street and Catch Me If You Can.
It’s also an all-star cast with arguably the biggest movie star of his generation in Timothée Chalamet alongside Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow in her film return after a five year hiatus, the debut of artist/rapper Tyler The Creator, and other stars including Fran Drescher, Penn Jillette, Odessa A’zion, Kevin O’Leary (a.k.a. Mr. Wonderful), Abel Ferrara, Sandra Bernhard, and more.
Production values should be on point, hence us describing it as one of the true blue chip projects. Acclaimed DoP Darius Khondji, who recently shot Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17, is aboard, as is three-time Oscar nominated production designer Jack Fisk (The Revenant), who is tasked with transforming New York City’s Lower East Side to the 1950s.
Pic is produced by Eli Bush, Anthony Katagas, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Timothée Chalamet, and A24. A24 declined to comment for this piece.
