Damien Chazelle Sets Next Film at Paramount

Brian Welk
·2 min read
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A new film from Damien Chazelle is officially in the works as his follow-up to the ambitious and costly Old Hollywood epic “Babylon.”

Chazelle will make his follow-up to “Babylon” with the same studio that released that film, Paramount Pictures. Chazelle will direct, write, and produce the for-now-untitled film that was announced at CinemaCon on Thursday morning. The untitled film will be his sixth feature.

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No plot details or cast were revealed, but the “La La Land” filmmaker’s film is expected to hit theaters next year, and he will produce alongside Olivia Hamilton under their Wild Chickens Productions banner as part of their first look deal with Paramount, which was announced back in 2022 after the release of “Babylon.”

Chazelle recently admitted that, financially at least, “Babylon” “didn’t work at all” and he worried he wouldn’t get his next film made.

“You try to not have that effect what you’re doing creatively, but, at some level, it can’t help but affect it,” he said on TCM’s Talking Pictures podcast. “But maybe that’s OK? I have a very mixed mind about it. Who knows. Maybe I won’t be able to get this one made. I have no idea. We’ll have to wait and see.”

“Babylon” grossed just $15 million at the domestic box office against an $80 million budget despite starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, making it one of the more costly studio prestige flops in recent memory. It did a little better overseas, bringing its global box office to $63.5 million. He admitted on the podcast he likely won’t get the same budget he demanded on “Babylon” any time soon.

But Chazelle’s first-look deal with Paramount was already in place, so a new film should’ve been expected at some point. And he hasn’t been completely inactive since “Babylon.” Chazelle is also producing a film for Paramount, the new film from director David Ayer, “Heart of the Beast.”

And he recently directed Bradley Cooper in a Parisian Louis Vuitton ad and short film. The ad was a reunion for Cooper and Chazelle, who previously collaborated on another 2022 short film ad also for Louis Vuitton. He also recently served as the jury president for last year’s Venice Film Festival.

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