Damien Chazelle Is Spiritually Incapable of Making a Movie Sans Jazz

Damien Chazelle Is Spiritually Incapable of Making a Movie Sans Jazz,The trailer for Damien Chazelle’s new film ‘Babylon’ stars Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, and Diego Calva, out on December 23. Here’s all the cast, release, trailer, and plot information you need to know.

Damien Chazelle Is Spiritually Incapable of Making a Movie Sans Jazz

Not all Damien Chazelle movies are about (or adjacent to) jazz. But the important ones are. Two of his musicals feature jazz-obsessed male leads — namely, his first indie effort, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, and the almost–Oscar Best Picture winner La La Land — while the psychological drama Whiplash explored an abusive drum instructor whose regimented teaching took all the spice out of the inherently seasoned genre. Now, Chazelle returns to his roots with Babylon, a Tinseltown epic set in the decadent era known as the jazz age. The movie set its sights on a December 23 release, paving a familiar road to the Academy Awards. Oscar bait or not (… it is), Chazelle makes his most interesting movies about the things he likes (jazz), so perhaps this new effort will make some sweet music. The first teaser dropped on September 13, giving us some new insight into the film’s amphetamine- and alcohol-fueled world — and from the looks of it, Babylon will be a doozy (or a Baz Luhrmann–inspired excuse to get Margot Robbie to do her default American accent). The full trailer dropped November 28, and from Tobey Maguire’s yellowed teeth to Margot Robbie icing her nipples to Brad Pitt almost getting Gatsby-ed, it’s clear that this movie is taking some big swings (and we’re not talking about dance moves). Below, all the casting, plot, and release information we know so far.

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What’re the bebop basics of Babylon?

Well, it’s a movie directed by Damien Chazelle and written by Damien Chazelle, much like his past features. We also know it’s an ensemble film starring Brad Pitt, who’s fresh off the Bullet Train and lawsuits, Barbie Girl Margot Robbie, and Narcos: Mexico star Diego Calva. New photos suggest that Hollywood glamour and excess are the name of the game — Pitt and Calva are sat in tuxedos around Champagne bottles, while Robbie crowd-surfs a nightclub in a high-slit red dress. Fun!! Plus, Pitt plays an aging movie star reevaluating his life in a mirror, not dissimilar to his current reality. Chazelle revealed the film was inspired by “old-school epics that managed, through a handful of characters, to convey a society changing,” like The Godfather, La Dolce Vita, and Nashville.

Li Jun Li.Photo: Paramount Pictures/Paramount Pictures

What else has Chazelle said about the movie?

The writer-director promises a production. “It was definitely the hardest thing I’ve done,” he said to Vanity Fair. “Just the logistics of it, the number of characters, the scale of the set pieces, the span of time that the movie charts — it all conspired to make it particularly challenging, but it was a challenge that was pretty exciting to take on.” He doesn’t mention this being part of his whole jazz shtick, but that’s fine for now. Jazz is about the future, after all.

This post has been updated throughout.