Who is Marty Reisman, the ping-pong player Timothée Chalamet stars as in Josh Safdie’s new A24 movie?

Timothée Chalamet is confirmed to be in final talks to play the role of Marty Reisman in the movie “Marty Supreme”

Actor Timothée Chalamet, best known for his roles in movies like “Call Me By Your Name,” “Wonka,” and “Dune,” is set to star in an original A24 movie written by “Uncut Gems” director Josh Safdie about table tennis player Martin “Marty” Reisman.

In a tweet, the American independent entertainment company confirmed Chalamet’s involvement in the upcoming feature. 

Who is Marty Reisman?

“Marty Supreme” is said to be a fictionalized flick inspired by the life of Reisman, an American ping-pong star who started playing at the age of 12 in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, eventually becoming a city champion by the age of 13.

Marty, who died in 2012, was a champion who won 22 major titles from 1946 to 2002, including five bronze medals at the World Table Tennis Championships as well as the title of the oldest player to win an open national competition in a racket sport at the United States National Hardbat Championship when he was 67. 

He started his career as a hustler playing for bets and prize money. Reisman, also known as “the Needle” for his slim physique and quick wit, traveled the world to hustle movie stars and maharajas. In a New York Times obituary, he was said to have earned “enough winnings to become a three-time millionaire—and lost enough to be a three-time former millionaire.”

The ping-pong champion has a knack for theatrics, famously pulling out $100 bills from his roll to measure the net, breaking a cigarette in half from across the table, and playing blindfolded if the bet was very large.

He and his men’s double pal Douglas Cartland also performed comedy table tennis acts, opening for the American exhibition basketball team the Harlem Globetrotters. The duo would play using frying pans and sneakers as rackets to “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

In 1974, Reisman published his autobiography, “The Money Player, The Confessions of America’s Greatest Table Tennis Player and Hustler.”

Chalamet loves the Safdies

The movie will be Safdie’s third project with A24 after working on the 2019 thriller “Uncut Gems” starring Adam Sandler and “Good Time” with Robert Pattinson.

Chalamet, a self-confessed fan of the Safdie Brothers, will produce the film alongside Ei Bush and Anthony Katangas. In a 2019 piece he wrote for Variety, he said of the Safdie brothers: “The pair have continuously put out contemporary, raw, and untethered work over the last decade, each film building on the traits of the prior, but never once sacrificing their innate grittiness.”

The “Call Me By Your Name” actor has recently finished filming James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown,” where he plays a young Bob Dylan. 

No official release date has been confirmed for “Marty Supreme” as of writing.