Aaron Taylor-Johnson to star in Netflix's "lust-filled" Enigma Variations

Eagle-eyed Aciman-watchers will also note that this is not the line-up originally floated for this project: Last year, Variety reported that The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White was attached to star in the series, which is being developed for the small screen by writer and executive producer A.K. Shuman, and directed by Oliver Hermanus. But such are the wily ways of Hollywood, as no quarry (i.e., plum part as a man drifting through various sexual entanglements as part of a longform meditation on love and desire) can escape The Hunter’s grasp! (Also, White himself is pretty ridiculously busy these days, which probably didn’t help.)

Enigma Variations has been one of Aciman’s better-received books in recent years—not reaching the seismic, peach-devouring heights of Call Me By Your Name, but more warmly received than some of his other follow-ups. The book loosely follows the life of a man named Paul through “sweaty, poignant, lust-filled” vignettes throughout his life, ranging from age 12 up through middle age, and with an apparently inevitable-these-days digression on the topic of sexy tennis. There’s no word yet on when the series will arrive on the streaming service, so we’ll all just have to live in preparation—for none may know when the sweaty, poignant, and lust-filled Hunter may strike!