Daniel Craig gets new Queer co-star

Outer Banks fame Drew Starkey has come on board for Queer, which stars English actor Daniel Craig in the lead role.

Luca Guadagnino is helming the William S. Burroughs adaptation Queer with Daniel Craig playing the renowned counterculture author's alter ego, an outcast American expat who lives in Mexico. Starkey will star as a younger man with whom he becomes madly infatuated, Variety reported.

Queer will also topline Lesley Manville (The Crown), frequent Wes Anderson collaborator Jason Schwartzman; and Henry Zaga (The New Mutants), according to inside sources.

The boldly ambitious indie film is set to start shooting this month at Rome's refurbished Cinecitta Studios where the Mexico City-set movie will be filmed in its entirety.

Lorenzo Mieli's Fremantle-owned Italian company The Apartment -- the internationally expanding shingle behind Guadagnino's "Bones and All" and Sofia Coppola's upcoming "Priscilla" -- is lead producing Queer in tandem with Guadagnino's own Frenesy Film. Fremantle North America is also on board.

American playwright Justin Kuritzkes, who penned Guadagnino's upcoming sexy comedy Challengers starring Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, and Mike Fast, which has now completed post - has adapted the Burroughs novel for the big screen, continuing his collaboration with the Italian director.