Timothée Chalamet is in final talks to play ping-pong legend Marty Reisman in Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme for A24.
Timothée Chalamet could be perfecting his backspin, CHOP, and lob while in final talks to play ping pong professional Marty Reisman in Josh Safdie’s A24 film Marty Supreme. Safdie wrote the original movie alongside Ronald Bronstein, who produced it with Eli Bush and Anthony Hatagas. A24 confirmed the project by sharing a social media post with a black-and-white photo of the film’s title printed on a ping-pong ball.
Reisman passed away in 2012, but not before leaving behind a legacy of mythical proportions in the ping-pong community. Variety reports that the table tennis star began his career by hustling others in the lightning-fast game of paddle warfare. He won 22 significant ping pong titles from 1946 to 2002 and five bronze medals at the World Table Tennis Championships. Variety also notes that at 67, Reisman played in the United States National Hardbat Championship and became the oldest player to win an open national competition in a racket sport. People loved to watch Reisman play, and he was fearless in hamming his skills up for audiences by performing trick shots to wow the crowd.
Reisman wrote and published his autobiography “The Money Player: The Confessions of America’s Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler” in 1974, followed by a 2014 documentary called “Fact or Fiction: The Life and Times of a Ping Pong Hustler.”
Chalamet is thrilled by the chance to work alongside Josh Safdie after seeing the filmmaker’s 2019 drama Uncut Gems, starring Adam Sandler as Howard Ratner, a New York City jeweler in over his head after a risky deal goes south.
Josh’s brother, Benny Safdie, is going solo for the upcoming sports biopic The Smashing Machine, which will star Dwayne Johnson as the legendary MMA fighter Mark Kerr. In addition to his directorial duties, Safdie co-wrote the script, which focused on Kerr’s struggle with addiction, victory, love, and friendship in the year 2000. Likely to veer into more severe territory, The Smashing Machine gives Johnson a rare opportunity to flex his drama muscles for cameras. While some could be confused about what that looks like, Safdie is known for bringing the best out of his film stars.
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