Timothée Chalamet’s Marty Supreme: Release Date, Cast, Plot — And What It’s Really About

Timothee Chalamet is trading chocolate rivers and Arrakis sand for 1950s ping-pong grit. Josh Safdie’s new A24 movie is called 'Marty Supreme' (if you saw 'Mary Supreme' floating around, that was a typo), and it’s the priciest A24 film to date. Yes, pricier than 'Civil War.' Also yes, it’s about table tennis. And no, Safdie did not make it small.

Release plan and that stealth premiere

'Marty Supreme' had its world premiere as a secret screening at the New York Film Festival on October 6, 2025, tucked right into the Main Slate. A24 is releasing it in U.S. theaters on December 25, 2025. That makes it Chalamet’s second Christmas Day opening in a row after last year’s 'A Complete Unknown.' In the Nordics, Nordisk Film is handling distribution in Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. First trailer dropped back in August, with Chalamet rocking a fully retro look as the title character.

Early buzz: the Safdies go full-tilt again

The first reactions out of NYFF were glowing, with a lot of 'career-best' talk for Chalamet.

'Marty Supreme is Uncut Gems meets The Catcher in the Rye meets Jerry Maguire, carried by Timothee Chalamet’s best performance yet.'

- Ramin Setoodeh (Variety) on X

'Timothee Chalamet’s career-best performance—he was born to play this guy.'

- David Canfield (THR) on X

DiscussingFilm’s Diego Andaluz went big too, calling it Safdie’s best work and describing the movie as a deranged cross between 'Catch Me If You Can' and 'Uncut Gems' with Chalamet giving 'the performance of a lifetime.'

What the movie is actually about

Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a hustling table-tennis obsessive in the 1950s who sells shoes on the side and measures his life against one goal: beating his ultimate rival, Koto Endo. The idea sparked when Safdie’s wife (and executive producer) Sara Rossein handed him 'The Money Player,' the memoir by ping-pong legend Marty Reisman. Safdie showed Reisman’s photo to Chalamet and basically said: 'I want to do a movie in this world. Check out what this player looks like.'

Important: it’s not a straight biopic. Safdie built a fictional character, Marty Mauser, loosely inspired by Reisman, and folded in certain biographical touches as a nod to the icon.

Scale-wise, Safdie went for broke: over 150 speaking parts, tons of locations, and long shoots that had him obsessing over which five to ten extras lived in the corner of any given frame. He’s said the mission was to make this movie as big as he could make it.

Cast and who's playing who

• Timothee Chalamet as Marty Mauser, the ping-pong prodigy with a chip on his shoulder
• Kevin O'Leary (aka Mr. Wonderful) as Milton Rockwell, a businessman who functions as the film’s antagonist (kind of) — it’s his first time acting as someone other than himself
• Gwyneth Paltrow as Kay Stone, Rockwell’s wife and a faded Hollywood star who falls into an affair with Marty — Paltrow’s first screen role in five years
• Fran Drescher as Marty’s difficult mother
• Tyler, the Creator, making his acting debut, as Marty’s partner Wally
• Odessa A'zion as Rachel, Wally’s girlfriend
• Also appearing: Abel Ferrara, Penn Jillette, Sandra Bernhard, Spenser Granese, Philippe Petit, Luke Manley, John Catsimatidis, Tracy McGrady, Isaac Mizrahi, and Naomi Fry

Chalamet’s years-long prep (no, seriously)

Chalamet started ping-pong training way back in 2018. During COVID, he set up in the living room of his Tribeca place and kept grinding even while juggling 'Wonka,' 'Dune,' and 'The French Dispatch.' Safdie brought in Diego Schaaf to help with lessons, plus coaching from former U.S. Olympian Wei Wang. Chalamet has been open about how long he had to live with this character (and the musician he played in 'A Complete Unknown'):

'If anyone thinks this is cap, as the kids say — if anyone thinks this is made up — this is all documented, and it’ll be put out. These were the two spoiled projects where I got years to work on them. This is the truth. I was working on both these things concurrently.'

He’s also said he connected hard with Marty’s tunnel-vision pursuit of greatness — the whole compare-yourself-to-everyone-else spiral that can make or break you.

The money, the team, the math

A24 is reportedly in for about $70 million here, which makes 'Marty Supreme' the most expensive movie the company has ever backed, edging out last year’s 'Civil War.' Safdie directs and co-wrote with his longtime collaborator Ronald Bronstein. Chalamet is a co-producer alongside Safdie, Bronstein, Eli Bush, and Anthony Katagas.

Expect awards chatter

Post-premiere, a bunch of critics are already slotting Chalamet into next year’s Best Actor race, with some saying he could be duking it out with Leonardo DiCaprio and Dwayne Johnson. Coming off 'A Complete Unknown,' it tracks.

Paltrow’s frank take on her role

'I mean, we have a lot of sex in this movie. There’s a lot—a lot... They meet and she’s had a pretty tough life, and I think he breathes life back into her, but it’s kind of transactional for them both.'

- Gwyneth Paltrow, to Vanity Fair

The bottom line

'Marty Supreme' is Safdie aiming for maximalist sports-psychodrama energy with an eye on the box office and the Oscars. Raves out of NYFF, record A24 budget, a left-field antagonist in Mr. Wonderful, and Chalamet going full method on ping-pong? It’s weird, ambitious, and very inside baseball for a movie about table tennis — which is exactly why I want to see it on opening day.