Yahoo Movies Paramount Lands Damien Chazelle’s ‘Babylon,’ Dates It for Christmas 2021
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Paramount Pictures has landed the worldwide rights to Damien Chazelle’s next feature film “Babylon,” sources tell Variety.
Insiders add the studio has dated the film for a Dec. 25, 2021 limited release, with plans to go wide on Jan. 7. The release date puts in prime position for another awards season run for Chazelle, who won a best director Oscar for “La La Land.”
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The project first came on the market over the summer, and insiders say Paramount was competing with Lionsgate to land the distribution rights. Emma Stone and Brad Pitt are in talks to star but sources add deals have not closed for either Stone or Pitt.
Plot details are vague, but “Babylon” is said take place during the transition from silent films to talkies and will feature a mix of real-life and fictional characters, similar to Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” While the exact budget is still to be determined, sources have indicated Chazelle will be assembling an all-star ensemble to share the screen with Stone and Pitt. Olivia Hamilton, Matt Plouffe, Tobey Maguire and Marc Platt are producing “Babylon.”
Adam Siegel and Helen Estabrook are exec producing.
The project marks Chazelle’s first film since since his Neil Armstrong pic “First Man” starring Ryan Gosling. He had been recently working on the Netflix series “The Eddy.”
Chazelle is repped by WME.
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