Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the scripts behind the awards season’s most talked-about movies continues with Challengers, Amazon MGM Studios’ sports drama from director Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes, the duo that would who would go on to team on this year’s Daniel Craig-starrer Queer.
Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist star in Challengers, a nonlinear story focusing on a complex throuple that the audience watches like a thrilling, head-turning rally. The film, which was due to premiere the 2023 Venice Film Festival before being hampered by the SAG-AFTRA strike, bowed in April of this year and has grossed $96 million at the worldwide box office. It has since scored a Critics Choice nomination for the screenplay, and is up for four Golden Globes including Best Picture – Comedy or Musical and Best Peformance for a Female Actor for Zendaya.
The movie follows the meteoric rise and subsequent fall of Tashi (Zendaya), a tennis prodigy whose career is cut short after an injury. She dedicates herself to transforming her husband, Art Donaldson (Faist), from a mediocre player into a world-class champion, and Tashi’s relentless drive and strategic brilliance fuel Art’s success. However, when Art embarks on a losing streak, Tashi devises a bold plan to reignite his career: she forces him to compete in a low-level challenger event. This unexpected turn of events sets the stage for a showdown between Art and his former doubles partner (and Tashi’s former boyfriend), the washed-up Patrick Zweig (O’Connor).
A pivotal moment in the first act occurs when Tashi, Patrick and Art gather on the beach. Tashi delivers an insightful analogy between tennis and human connection. “For fifteen seconds, we were truly connected,” she muses, “we were truly connected, our strokes synchronized in perfect harmony.” This early scene foreshadows the intense, climactic showdown between Patrick and Art as they unleash their pent-up emotions in the match, a physical manifestation of their turbulent relationship, ultimately culminating in Tashi’s cathartic scream of pure exhilaration.
The razor-sharp script by playwright Kuritzkes is an intimate exploration of tennis, transforming the court into a sensual battleground. But how does one make a tennis drama captivating? By focusing on the primal energy between Patrick and Art, Kuritzkes highlights the inherent eroticism of the sport. Two players, former best friends and lovers of Tashi, engage in a prolonged physical and mental duel during the film’s final act — a thrilling, non-contact battle heightening the tension and creating a captivating dance of power and desire.
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Speaking at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles, Kuritzkes shared his insight on why Guadagnino was the ideal director for Challengers.
“I’ll tell you the moment I knew that Luca was the perfect director for this,” he said. “He had just read the script and we were talking on the phone and Luca said, ‘I know next to nothing about tennis but I know a great deal about desire.’ ”
Read the script below.
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