Daniel Craig is tipped for Oscar glory for his ‘brilliant and explicit’ role as a man drawn into a same-sex romance in Queer ahead of its premiere at the Venice Film Festival

Bond fans may be left shaken and stirred by Daniel Craig’s graphic gay sex scenes in Queer – and gossip about the footage is setting the Lido at Venice Film Festival alight ahead of the movie’s premiere on Tuesday. 

Five-times 007 Daniel Craig stars in the picture, directed by darling of the film world Luca Guadagnino. 

Based on William Burroughs’ semiautobiographical novella about obsessive lust, it stars Craig as American expat and war veteran William Lee, who has a romance with a younger man, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey), a drug addict and discharged Navy serviceman. 

Allerton initially rejects Lee’s advances but eventually relents. One particularly frank scene features Craig performing oral sex. 

I’m told: ‘It’s a long way from Bond, and very explicit. Craig is brilliant in the film.’ 

Venice Film Festival boss Alberto Barbera said he believes Craig has given ‘the performance of a lifetime’ in Queer, and added he’d be surprised if we don’t see the British actor at the Academy Awards next year. 

Barbera told a journalist that Craig had ‘a couple of sex scenes that are quite full-on’.

In an interview, Guadagnino commented: ‘Queer will be my most personal film. It’s a tribute to Powell and Pressburger. 

‘I’ve seen The Red Shoes at least 50 times and I think they would appreciate the sex scenes in Queer, which are numerous and quite scandalous.’ 

The novella was penned between 1951 and 1953 but not published until 1985. Much of it was written in the aftermath of the death of Burroughs’ wife Joan Vollmer – who he shot in the head during a drinking party in Mexico City. 

Their four-year-old son was in the room at the time. Burroughs said he was trying to shoot a glass off her head, William Tell style, but later changed his story to say the weapon misfired. 

He was convicted of manslaughter in his absence, after fleeing to the US. 

Craig, 56, lives mostly in New York these days with actress Rachel Weisz and their young daughter. 

The James Bond star plays an American expat and war veteran who becomes embroiled in a romance with younger man, and is said to feature several explicit sex scene

He has acted for more 30 years, but never received an Oscar nomination. 

As well as the Bond films, he has appeared in Layer Cake and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. 

Production recently wrapped on Wake Up, Dead Man – the third instalment in the wildly successful Knives Out series. 

Italian Guadagnino, 53, is known for Call Me By Your Name, Challengers and Bones And All.