The December 25th restricted release of Paramount’s Babylon has been scrapped, and the film will now have its wide release on December 23, following the release of Avatar: The Way of Water. Before the schedule shift, the film was set to open in theatres nationwide on January 6. After the success of Whiplash, La La Land, and First Man, Damien Chazelle returns with another critically acclaimed picture, Babylon. The filmmaker told Vanity Fair that he had been thinking about making the film ever since he moved to Los Angeles in 2007 since he wanted to create his own homage to the formative years of contemporary Hollywood. The film marks Chazelle’s return to movies set in Los Angeles after La La Land, which starred Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone and grossed an outstanding $439 million at the worldwide box office, as well as winning Best Actress and Best Director at the 89th Academy Awards, with Chazelle becoming the youngest winner of the directing trophy.
Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt star in the picture; Robbie plays an aspiring actress who struggles to break into the industry. It’s set in 1920s Hollywood, around the time when silent films were giving way to talkies, and it’ll include a cast of fictitious and historical characters, including Tobey Maguire as Charlie Chaplin. Filming concluded in October 2021 and it was claimed the film will also involve performers playing Hollywood’s first “It” girl Clara Bow, actor Anna May Wong, and writer Elinor Glyn and studio president Irving Thalberg.
In addition to Olivia Wilde, Samara Weaving, Jean Smart, Li Jun Li, Jovan Adepo, Katherine Waterston, Flea, Lukas Haas, Rory Scovel, P.J. Byrne, Spike Jonze, Chloe Fineman, Jeff Garlin, and Max Minghella, the picture has an impressive ensemble cast. Stone, who had collaborated with Chazelle on La La Land, had been set to star in the film but dropped out to make room for Robbie. Due of its massive scope, the movie is expected to last for three hours and five minutes.