Damien Chazelle is back, baby. After a four-year hiatus, the La La Land director has unveiled the first trailer of what he’s been working on all this time: Babylon, which looks to be a stunning ode to the magic of moviemaking.
Before we even get a glimpse of the film, someone snorts the stars of the Paramount logo as if they were cocaine. That someone turns out to be Margot Robbie. Clearly coked-out, Robbie daydreams with Diego Calva, both of them admitting that they want to be larger-than-life stars of the silver screen.
“It’s written in the stars!” Robbie exclaims. “I am a star.”
Then, the Babylon trailer explodes into Great Gatsby-like proportions. Even Tobey Maguire appears, playing a super sweaty, partying Charlie Chaplin. Everyone’s dancing in swanky clubs, wearing the finest outfits, attending movie premieres, and having a good time. “I just want for everyone to party forever,” Robbie says.
As always with Chazelle, there’s plenty of grand musical fanfare in the first look. After the jazzy sequences of Whiplash and La La Land, the director has outdone himself yet again with a big time band blasting trombones and trumpets over the screaming party attendees. Justin Hurwitz, who’s worked with Chazelle on his biggest features, returns to score Babylon.
There are dozens of movies about movies, though, so what’s Babylon actually about? While blending fiction with real life, Babylon will track the move from silent films into talkies, featuring Margot Robbie as one of the rising starlets at the time. Brad Pitt also stars as a director/producer type, floozying his way around Hollywood with big ambitions.
Alongside Pitt, Robbie, Maguire, and Calva, Babylon’s stacked cast includes Jean Smart, Olivia Wilde, Katherine Waterston, Max Minghella, Spike Jonze, and Margot Robbie’s lookalike, Samara Weaving.
It’s worth noting that there are some controversial figures in the cast, too. Pitt is currently under fire after his alleged assault of ex-wife Angelina Jolie, who claimed he acted violently toward their children. Further, the film also stars Jeff Garlin, who was allegedly “extremely verbally and emotionally abusive” on the set of his ABC sitcom The Goldbergs. Filming did, however, begin before either of these allegations came to light.
Babylon marks Chazelle’s fourth major feature film, following the 2018 Neil Armstrong biopic First Man was released. In between his two most recent feature films, he also released The Eddy, a jazz drama series, on Netflix.
Babylon will premiere in select theaters on Dec. 23, expanding everywhere on Jan. 6.
