''Challengers'' is an upcoming American romantic

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

comedy drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple co ...

film directed by

Luca Guadagnino Luca Guadagnino (; born 10 August 1971) is an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are often characterized by their emotional complexities, sensuality and sumptuous visuals. He is also known for his frequent collaboration ...

and written by Justin Kuritzkes. The film stars

Zendaya Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman ( ; born September 1, 1996) is an American actress and singer. She has received various accolades, including two Primetime Emmy Awards. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the ...

Josh O'Connor Josh O'Connor (born in 1989/1990) is a British actor. He portrayed a young Charles III (Prince Charles) in the Netflix drama ''The Crown'' (2019–2020), for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama and th ...

and

Mike Faist Michael David Faist (; born January 5, 1992) is an American actor. An alumnus of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, Faist is the recipient of a Grammy and an Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program, Em ...

. Its plot follows a

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

tennis champion who signs up to compete in a

challenger Challenger, Challengers, or The Challengers may refer to: Entertainment Comics and manga * Challenger (character), comic book character * ''Challengers'' (manga), manga by Hinako Takanaga Film and TV * ''The Challengers'' (TV series), a 1979 ...

event against the former lover of his wife and coach. ''Challengers'' is scheduled to be released in the United States on April 26, 2024 by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

. It was delayed from its initial September 15, 2023 release date, and pulled out from its slot as the opening film of the

80th Venice International Film Festival 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

, due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.

Premise

Following a losing streak, the wife and coach of a

champion signs him up for a

Challenger Challenger, Challengers, or The Challengers may refer to: Entertainment Comics and manga * Challenger (character), comic book character * ''Challengers'' (manga), manga by Hinako Takanaga Film and TV * ''The Challengers'' (TV series), a 1979 ...

event where he will face off against her former lover.

Cast

as Tashi Duncan *

as Patrick *

as Art Donaldson * Jake Jensen

Production

Development

It was announced in February 2022 that

had landed the film, which

directed and

and

cast to star. Zendaya also served as a producer on the film. In a 2022 interview with ''

Collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator which brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Colliders may either be ring accelerators or linear accelerators. Colliders are used as a research tool in particle ...

'', Guadagnino cited Kuritzkes' screenplay, Amy Pascal, and Zendaya as inspirations for making the film.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began on May 3, 2022, in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, where a casting call took place for local residents to audition to play tennis players, general extras, and stand-ins. In preparation for her role, Zendaya spent three months training with pro-tennis player-turned-coach

Brad Gilbert Brad Gilbert (born August 9, 1961) is a former professional tennis player and an American tennis coach. During his career, he won 20 singles titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 in 1990, and a career-high doubles rank ...

. Filming occurred in and around the

Back Bay Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and t ...

and

East Boston East Boston, nicknamed Eastie, is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts annexed by the city of Boston in 1637. Neighboring communities include Winthrop, Revere, and Chelsea. It is separated from the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown and do ...

neighborhoods. Sayombhu Mukdeeprom served as cinematographer. Jonathan Anderson, creative director of Spanish luxury brand Loewe, served as costume designer. Filming wrapped on June 26, 2022.

Post-production

Guadagnino visited Zendaya on the set of '' Dune: Part Two'' in order to complete

ADR ADR or adr may refer to: Computing * Asynchronous DRAM refresh, an approach for persistent memory found in some Intel Xeon processors * The adr microformat, part of the hCard microformat * Architectural decision record * Action–domain–respond ...

for ''Challengers''.

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...

and

Atticus Ross Atticus Matthew Cowper Ross (born 16 January 1968) is an English musician, record producer, composer, and audio engineer. Along with Trent Reznor, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for ''The Social Network'' in 2010. In 2013, th ...

composed the film's score, having previously worked with Guadagnino on 2022's ''

Bones and All ''Bones and All'' is a 2022 romantic horror film directed by Luca Guadagnino from a screenplay by David Kajganich, based on the 2015 novel ''Bones & All'' by Camille DeAngelis. The film stars Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet as a pair of ...

.''

Post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...

was completed by April 2023.

Release

''Challengers'' is scheduled to be released in the United States on April 26, 2024. Previously set to be released on September 15, 2023, and before that August 11, 2023, the film was also scheduled to have its world premiere as the opening film of the

, but was delayed and pulled out from the festival by Amazon MGM Studios due to the ongoing 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. While

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of liv ...

serves as the film's international distributor, the film will not receive a theatrical release in France and will instead stream on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

References

External links

* * {{Luca Guadagnino Upcoming films American sports comedy films Amazon MGM Studios films Films affected by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike Films directed by Luca Guadagnino Films shot in Boston Films produced by Amy Pascal Films scored by Atticus Ross Films scored by Trent Reznor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Tennis films 2020s English-language films 2020s American films Warner Bros. films