Director Luca Guadagnino: Cannibal Movie, Armie Hammer Scandal Not Related

"Call Me by Your Name" director Luca Guadagnino, who worked with Armie Hammer on that film, says there is no connection between his new film about cannibal lovers and the headlines that erupted last year over leaked messages from Hammer's Instagram account that detailed BDSM fantasies that seemingly included references to cannibalism and drinking blood, Variety reported.

"It didn't dawn on me," Guadagnino told Deadline, adding: "I realized this afterward when I started to be told of some of these innuendos on social media."

The director went on to say, "Any link with anything else exists only in the realm of social media, with which I do not engage."

"The relationship between this kind of digital muckraking and our wish to make this movie is non-existent and it should be met with a shrug," Guadagnino said. "I would prefer to talk about what the film has to say, rather than things that have nothing to do with it."

Still, the coincidence has been hard to miss. As EDGE noted as far back as January 2021, the new film's theme, juxtaposed with the scandal that seemingly consumed Hammer's career, made for "weird optics" even outside of social media spaces – all the more so since the new movie, titled "Bones and All," reunites Guadagnino with "Call Me by Your Name" actors Timothée Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg.

Chalamet dropped a teaser for the new film on Twitter earlier this month.

A January, 2021 story in UK newspaper the Daily Mail detailed the Instagram messages, which were allegedly direct messages Hammer sent to a female acquaintance.

"'You just live to obey me and be my slave,' a message purported to have been sent from Hammer's official Instagram account reads," the Daily Mail recounted. "'I will own you. That's my soul. My brain. My spirit. My body. Would you come and be my property till you die?... If I wanted to cut off one of your toes and keep it with me in my pocket so I always had a piece of you in my possession?'"

"Guadagnino said that 'Bones and All,' which is based on Camille DeAngelis' 2015 book of the same name, has been in development for 'a number of years,'" Variety added.

The entertainment news outlet pointed out that the trailer for Guadagnino's new movie came out the very next day after Discovery+ announced its upcoming documentary series, "House of Hammer."

As reported previously at EDGE, "the doc will reveal a sordid history of money, power and deceit behind Armie Hammer's family empire and also explore the allegations of cannibalism and sexual assault that brought the actor's career down in flames."

"The accusations of rape and abuse brought against Armie Hammer in the last few years are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Hammer family," the article quoted Jason Sarlanis, Discovery+ president of crime and investigative content. "With 'House of Hammer,' we witness truly disturbing details and sinister secrets that money and power couldn't hide forever."