After his award-winning turn as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, Timothée Chalamet is set to star as yet another real-life Jewish legend in the upcoming A24 film Marty Supreme, a trailer released Wednesday reveals.
Directed by Josh Safdie, one half of the Jewish Safdie brother filmmaking duo, Marty Supreme sees a mustachioed and bespectacled Chalamet appear as aspiring ping pong champion Marty Mauser, a character loosely based on real-life “wizard of ping pong” Marty Reisman, who died in 2012.
A fictionalised interpretation of Reisman’s rise to ping pong fame in the early 1950s, Marty Supreme depicts Mauser’s journey from underdog to world champion as he strives for greatness in a sport no one seems to take seriously.
“I know it’s hard to believe, but I’m telling you, this game, it fills stadiums overseas, and it’s only a matter of time before I’m staring at you from the cover of a Wheaties box,” Chalamet says as Mauser in the film trailer.
The unconventional sports drama is poised to be one of the most Jewish films of the year: not only is Marty Supreme written and directed by Jews – Safdie shares a writing credit with Uncut Gems collaborator Ronald Bronstein – but it also stars Jewish actresses Fran Drescher as Mauser’s mother and Gwenyth Paltrow as a famous actress who catches his eye.
Not to mention the character on which Mauser is based, who was born in 1930 to an Ashkenazi Jewish family in New York; Reisman, a gambler and a showman who would reportedly measure the table tennis net with a $100 bill before matches and break a cigarette in half from across the table, won 22 major titles over the span of his decades-long career, including World Table Tennis Championships, US Opens and a British Open.
Reisman also performed a comedic table tennis routine as an opening act for the Harlem Globetrotters, earned and lost millions through gambling, and was most often seen wearing a Borsalino fedora.
Chalamet has already proven his ability to portray larger-than-life Jewish legends, with his 2024 turn as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown earning him an Oscar nod and a SAG award for Outstanding Lead Actor. As for director Safdie, Marty Supreme marks his first solo directorial project since 2008, having spent the better part of two decades collaborating with his brother Benny on New York City-set thrillers like Good Time and the über Jewish Uncut Gems.
With a reported budget of $70 million, Marty Supreme is said to be A24’s most expensive film to date.
Marty Supreme hits theaters in the UK on 1 January, 2026.
To get more from Life, click here to sign up for our free Life newsletter.