Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon” is said to take place during the transition from silent films to talkies and will feature a mix of real-life and fictional characters. It is set to star Emma Stone and also, rumor has it, Brad Pitt. [Via THR]
Pitt would portray a fictional character that is a star of silent films who is unable to make the transition to the new era of Hollywood. The report claims that he’s based on the real-life story of John Gilbert. Stone, on the other hand, would play Clara Bow, who is widely recognized as the first “It” girl of Hollywood.
After his low-key debut “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench,” Chazelle stormed the industry with 2014’s “Whiplash” and 2016’s “La La Land,” both of which got a Best Picture nomination. His subsequent film, the Neil Armstrong biopic“First Man,” was less successful, to my eyes and ears at least, but most definitely had its fans. Its shaky camerawork and coldly detached style isolated many moviegoers including the voting body of the Academy as it managed to only nab three nominations (all three in crafts categories).
Chazelle is one of the few filmmaking whiz kids to have come out of American cinema this decade. Not many directors have broken out within the American studio this decade like Chazelle has. It will be very exciting to see what he does next with “Babylon,” a film that does seem to be right up his alley in terms of musical and Hollywood influences.