Paramount Pictures has released a brand-new featurette for Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon.” The period piece film stars Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva in a tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood. And after watching the featurette, “it’s wilder than you can imagine.”
Chazelle describes “Babylon” as film about a group of people who find themselves at a time of “depravity, debauchery, and excess.” According to the director, it is the biggest thing he’s ever tried to do, following films like “Whiplash,” “La La Land,” and “First Man.”
“It’s like the wild west,” Robbie adds as clips of a film crew capturing cinematic epic battles, classic cars racing down dusty roads, sensual dancing, lots of drinking, second story stumbles, and a crocodile because why not.
“The story follows multiple characters who have an ambition to be a part of something that’s bigger than themselves,” Pitt chimes. Indeed, looking at the size and scope of the film, the characters’ ambition is just as big, if not bigger, than Chazelle’s.
As the cast describes their characters, we get to see that “Babylon” is a film about making of a film, and the cast and crew just trying to survive as the partake in their vices and debachuary. It is indeed a wild time. At least judging by the looks of this featurette.
“It shows us a side of Hollywood beyond what you could have ever imagined,” Tobey McGuire said.
Now, selected critics screened the film earlier this month, and reactions were pretty much split. It’s one of those you will love it or you will hate it films.
“Babylon” also stars P.J. Byrne, Lukas Haas, Olivia Hamilton, Max Minghella, Rory Scovel, Katherine Waterston, Flea, Jeff Garlin, Eric Roberts, Ethan Suplee, Samara Weaving, Olivia Wilde.
Paramount Pictures has scheduled Babylon for a December 23, 2022, release.
Here’s the official plot synopsis for “Babylon”
From Damien Chazelle, BABYLON is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.
