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,

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.