Director Damien Chazelle’s instant rise to fame is something that’s unmatched. The success of his breakout film Whiplash was followed by La La Land, and First Man, all of them bagging several Academy Awards nominations and wins. Now, he’s coming out with his next feature Babylon, an epic period comedy-drama that might just join the glorious league of his previous projects. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the celebrated director spoke of his vision for the upcoming film, and taking inspiration from real-life people for his on-screen characters.
Set in 1920s Los Angeles, when Hollywood was going through a massive transition from silent movies to talkies, Babylon is described as a tale of “outsized ambition and outrageous excess.” The feature will follow the rise and fall of multiple characters in early Hollywood. The film’s title is also a nod to its inspiration, as the director draws a parallel between the ancient city and old-school Hollywood. He feels “it’s like the story of Los Angeles itself,” as it’s “basically what the early film industry was, this makeshift society that had been built up really fast, in this kind of unbridled, reckless way.” Chazelle further reveals that “[Babylon] was a name used to describe Hollywood in those days — the idea of a sinful place, a city of decadence and depravity that was heading to ruin.”
Per the director, the reason to take real-life inspirations was to “take an honest, unvarnished look at the good and the bad of a really seismic shift” through different characters. But what really fascinated him after years of research for the story “was trying to map that theme over a broad array of people, and a whole society at large, rather than just a single individual or pair of individuals,” says Chazelle. From the look of the trailer and character posters, it is certain that the director has another very interesting story to tell.
Babylon also has a very illustrious cast consisting of strong performers. Brad Pitt plays Jack Conrad a character inspired by John Gilbert, Clark Gable, and Douglas Fairbanks, Academy nominated actor Margot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy, who is a combination of personalities like Clara Bow, Joan Crawford, Jeanne Eagels, and Alma Rubens. While Tobey Maguire is set to play the silent film star and architect of Modern Hollywood Charlie Chaplin. The film’s ensemble cast also includes Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, and Jean Smart.
Babylon arrives in theaters on December 23. You can check out the trailer below:
