Damien Chazelle’s New Movie ‘Babylon’ Adds Three New Cast Members
Damien Chazelle is enlarging the cast for his upcoming Babylon.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mexican actor Diego Calva is joining the big leagues, as he will star opposite Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt in the upcoming Hollywood period piece, which was described to THR as “Great Gatsby on steroids.” Additionally, Jovan Adepo and Li Jun Li are joining the cast too.
Calva will play a young Mexican actor climbing up the Hollywood ladder in the transition from silent films to talkies that the movie will explore, in the 1930s. He had several chemistry tests with lead actress Margot Robbie, which may hint at a connection between their respective characters.
THR is also saying that the script went through many states (as all do), and one of the highlights is that, at one point, Robbie’s character was going to be Clara Bow, the first Hollywood “It” girl, and one of the first proper movie stars. That is no longer the case, and her character is now purely fictitious. Both Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt are playing aspiring actors finding several degrees of success.
This story represents further confirmation of Robbie landing the part that was previously going to be played by Emma Stone, who had to drop out in early December due to a scheduling conflict. Back then, Robbie was still in negotiations.
Although the movie will probably end up feeling very original and at the same time very reminiscent of 20 different movies from the 1930s, like all of Chazelle’s movies do, the description does sound close to Singin’ in the Rain, a movie that Damien Chazelle already used as an inspiration for several sequences in La La Land.
Paramount has scheduled Babylon for Christmas of next year – it will have a limited theatrical run starting December 25, 2022, and then expand on January 6, 2023.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
