Léa Seydoux To Star Opposite Josh O’Connor In Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Separate Rooms’

EXCLUSIVE: Esteemed French actress Léa Seydoux (Dune: Part Two) is attached to star opposite Josh O’Connor (Challengers) in Separate Rooms, an upcoming film from Luca Guadagnino, multiple sources tell Deadline.

An adaptation of the 1989 novel by the late author Pier Vittorio Tondelli, the film is a non-chronological examination of the romance between the Italian iconoclast writer, Leo (O’Connor), and his translator, Thomas. Details as to the role Seydoux is playing haven’t been disclosed.

The script comes from Francesca Manieri, who collaborated with Guadagnino on his Sky/HBO series We Are Who We Are. Lorenzo Mieli will produce for Fremantle, following his work with Guadanino on his cannibal romance Bones and All, starring Timothée Chalamet, which won him the prize for Best Director at the 2022 Venice Film Festival.

Best known for starring in the Bond films Spectre and No Time to Die, as well as Abdellatif Kechiche’s Palme d’Or winner Blue Is the Warmest Color, Seydoux can currently be seen portraying Lady Margot Fenring in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two, which has grossed over $628 million worldwide since its launch to critical raves earlier this year. Other recent credits for the actress include David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future, which premiered at Cannes, Bertrand Bonello’s drama The Beast, which bowed out of Venice, and Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning, which played Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

A draw for auteurs across the globe, Seydoux has also previously seen in Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and The Grand Budapest Hotel, as well as Yorgos’ Lanthimos The Lobster, and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. The actress is repped by UTA and Agence Adequat in France.

Preparing for the April 26 launch of his Amazon MGM pic Challengers starring Zendaya, which pulled out of Venice last fall amid the actor’s strike, Guadagnino’s dance card also includes the forthcoming film Queer, starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey, which adapts the book by William S. Burroughs. He is repped by CAA, Range Media Partners, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman.

Manieri is with I.P.C. International.