Luca Guadagnino talks to IndieWire about his William S. Burroughs adaptation 'Queer,' starring Daniel Craig, in a wide-ranging interview.

The director detailed his ambitions around the William S. Burroughs novella while the actor known for playing James Bond praised the daring script.

I know the story of Queer well — the book itself, the circumstances of it being written, and the mythology that preceded the publication of it, the “lost” William Burroughs manuscript. And so I was truly dreading seeing Luca Guadagnino’s $53 million Queer,

All of that is there in Luca Guadagnino ’s Queer, the adaptation of the story. What’s different is the depiction of Lee and Allerton's profound, hallucinogenic experience while on ayahuasca and the movie’s full jump into the surreal with its epilogue.

The context of Burroughs writing “Queer” is unspeakably tragic, and Guadagnino refers to it without making the film a biopic; he is more concerned with the character’s state of mind, which is troubled, addled from drugs and booze, and driven almost mad with yearning.

Luca Guadagnino entered 2024 in a massive way with Challengers, and he’s set to close the year with one of his most explosive films yet. Queer is already making a splash at film festivals and with critics,