Timothée Chalamet’s gritty crime thriller has been rejected

We supposedly live in an age where there are no more movie stars, which would make Timati Chalamet something of an anomaly. The 28-year-old has had a string of box office hits in 2023 and 2024, proving that he has a unique movie star appeal that keeps audiences at large paying for tickets simply on the basis that Chalamet is a star.

Following Willy Wonka’s origin story, “Wonka” has earned over $600 million worldwide in December 2023. a sci-fi epic with Chalamet “Vidma: Part Two” broke the box office mark after the box office in 2024 became one of the biggest films of the year. He also plays living legend Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s Total Obscurity , and if his last two films are anything to go by, this particular biopic should benefit greatly from Chalamet’s presence.

But it took time for the young actor to reach this level of movie stardom. Prior to fronting Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and Dune: Part Two, he was desperate to work with the French-Canadian filmmaker on anything. He once even auditioned for one of Villeneuve’s best films, narrowly landing a role that would cement the pair’s working relationship long before they brought the Paul Atreides saga to the big screen.

Today, we know Denis Villeneuve as the director of such major films as the dark blockbuster “Dune: Part Two”, as well as its predecessor, “Vidma”, smart sci-fi movie with a beating heart Arrival, and the shockingly neglected Blade Runner 2049. But when Villeneuve was trying to make a name for himself outside of his native Canada, Villeneuve burst onto the scene with what remains one of his best films: 2013’s The Prisoners.

The film stars Hugh Jackman as Keller Dover, a father whose daughter is kidnapped. Dover becomes increasingly desperate in his search for her, breaking his long-held principles as he slowly unravels. Jake Gyllenhaal’s detective Loki, who is fighting his own demons, watches the tragic events from the side of the police. As the days pass, Dover becomes increasingly convinced that Paul Dano’s Alex Jones—a man with an intellectual disability—is behind his daughter’s kidnapping, and in one of his most memorable scenes, leads Alex to an empty house where he beats him mercilessly. trying to get the answers he needs.

Dano is perfect as Alex, delivering a low-key but effective performance that lives up to the demands of the film’s big twist. But it seems that Timothee Chalamet could have weathered Jackman’s wrath in the film, as the Dunes star actually tried out for Prisoners when he was just 15 years old. GQ As reported in 2020, when Chalamet met with Villeneuve about Dune, the director told the star how good it was to finally meet, only for Chalamet to remind him that he had previously auditioned for Prisoners. “Of course!” Villeneuve said when told: “He auditioned brilliantly, but he wasn’t physically right for the part. Maybe he was swearing at me because I didn’t take it.’

After Denis Villeneuve passed to Timothée Chalamet, Paul Dano was fortunately drawn to The Prisoners which overall worked out in the best possible way. Dano was one of the best things about the film, and Chalamet went on to star in a number of increasingly high-profile projects. But it seems that all the while he was becoming a bona fide movie star, Chalamet harbored a desire to one day work with Villeneuve ever since his failed audition for The Prisoners. As the actor once said ETalk“I auditioned for ‘Prisoners’ when I was 15 with Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman, so I’ve been trying to work with (Villeneuve) for a long time,” adding: “He’s one of the best, if not the best director working right now.”

His desire to finally work with Villeneuve was so strong that, as Chalamet revealed Deadline in 2021, he set up a Google alert for the Dune project “as soon as Denis got involved.” The actor also opened up more about how he tried to get the director’s attention after his audition for Prisoners didn’t work out, saying:

“I remember I tried to put myself in front of him as much as possible and arrange a meeting with him. We had a night at the BAFTAs where one of my good friends, Stefan Buck, who’s also an actor, saw Denis across the room and said, “Hey mate, he’s right there.” So we approached him to talk, I kept trying to put myself in front of him, but I didn’t really feel like I could (work with him).”

Fortunately, although Chalamet had initially forgotten about auditioning for Prisoners, Villeneuve had him in mind for The Dune and asked the actor to fly to Cannes (where he was president of the jury) to discuss the film, thereby securing his appearance in the film and finally bringing them together in the project.