Move over, tennis — it’s Ping-Pong’s time in the limelight.
Racquet sports generally have good PR — look at John McEnroe lending colorful voice-over for a high-school sitcom, or Serena Williams literally doing anything, or, more recently, the Challengers love triangle that had the power to permanently alter brain chemistry. All of these legends in racquet sports have one thing in common: tennis. But what of the other activities in which you hit a ball with a racquet? Well, table tennis is finally inching its way back into conversation, no thanks to Balls of Fury. The big Ping-Pong revival is courtesy of Josh Safdie, formerly of the Safdie-brothers filmmaking dream team. (May the partnership that brought us Uncut Gems and Good Times rest in peace.) The writer-director cast Timothée Chalamet to star in his upcoming A24 film, Marty Supreme, a fictionalized biopic about the life of table-tennis king Marty Reisman, sources tell Variety. A24 didn’t confirm much with its July 15 announcement. All we got was a black-and-white picture of a tennis ball emblazoned with the film’s title and the subtitle, “Made in America.” Good move, appealing to patriotism. It’ll need all the help it can get to tip tennis’s crown.
Josh Safdie's MARTY SUPREME starring @RealChalamet. Coming soon pic.twitter.com/9ko3uu0IsC
— A24 (@A24) July 15, 2024
Related
