Weird Optics: 'CMBYN' Director & Timothée Chalamet Plan for Film About Cannibalism (Without Armie Hammer)

"He put the cicada shell in my palm and I looked at it. Something flickered then, in a dark corner of my mind: I knew about things that weren't meant to be eaten," confesses the 16-year-old protagonist Maren Yearly in Camille DeAngelis' 2016 young adult novel "Bones & All."

What she's talking about is cannibalism, an unlikely topic for a coming-of-age story that follows the teen on a cross-country journey in search of her father and a coming-to-terms with an uncomfortable reality.

"Written in the first year after I went vegan, 'Bones & All' is more than a meditation on feminine power and sexuality: it's about why we eat flesh," wrote DeAngelis in describing her novel.

The story has caught the eye of Italian director Luca Guadagnino, best-known for the 2017 gay drama "Call Me By Your Name," who is in planning stages for a film adaptation (by scriptwriter Dave Kajganich, who worked with the director on "A Bigger Splash") and is in talks with Timoth�e Chalamet and Taylor Russell to star, according to Deadline.

Guadagnino is already having a most busy year, with talk of a "Scarface" reboot and a television reboot of "Brideshead Revisited" in the works. He also told IndieWire last November that he's mapped out the second season of his recent HBO series "We Are Who We Are," that concerns Americans living on a military base in Italy during the 2016 election season, but it is on hold due to the pandemic.

But there is no additional talk of a sequel to "Call Me By Your Name" that was announced by Guadagnino last March in Variety. "Not much is known about the new movie, but the novel on which 'Call Me by Your Name' is based also has a sequel, titled 'Find Me,' featuring the same characters. It takes place 10 years after the original story.

"Of course, it was a great pleasure to work with Timoth�e Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Esther Garrel and the other actors. Everyone will be in the new movie," Guadagnino said in the interview.

And while Hammer's name is not attached to "Bones& All," there's little doubt that the recent stories about his alleged cannibalistic desires is the elephant in the room when discussing the film. "Absent from the project is Chalamet's 'CMBYN' co-star Armie Hammer, who happens to be embroiled in a real life 'cannibal' controversy of his own after disturbing direct messages allegedly sent by the actor were leaked in early January," writes the Daily Mail.

"The messages described some alarming sexual fantasies, including cannibalism: 'I am 100% a cannibal. I want to eat you. F***. That's scary to admit. I've never admitted that before.'"