Paramount Pictures will back Damien Chazelle‘s next feature film.
The collaboration reunites the director with the studio behind his most recent movie, 2022’s “Babylon,” a debauched and drug-fueled ode to the golden age of showbiz. Despite its grand ambitions and starry cast of Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, “Babylon” became an epic box office disaster with just $63 million worldwide against its $80 million budget (not including the pricey marketing campaign).
Paramount announced Chazelle’s new movie as part of its presentation at CinemaCon, the annual gathering of movie theater owners that’s currently taking place in Las Vegas. The studio didn’t share a single detail — not the genre, cast, plot or release timeline — about Chazelle’s new film. Of course, Paramount didn’t reveal the budget either, although Chazelle presumably won’t get the same blank check to fund the upcoming movie.
Chazelle, the Oscar-winning filmmaker of “La La Land,” “Whiplash” and “First Man,” is writing and directing the new movie, which will hit theaters in 2025. He will produce the film with Olivia Hamilton under their Wild Chickens Productions banner, as part of their first look deal with Paramount.
After the poor box office performance of “Babylon,” Chazelle has expressed concern about getting another mega budget to realize his next cinematic vision.
“I won’t get a budget of ‘Babylon’ size any time soon, or at least not on this next one,” he said earlier this year on the “Talking Pictures” podcast. “Certainly, in financial terms, ‘Babylon’ didn’t work at all. You try to not have that affect what you’re doing [next] creatively. At some level, it can’t help but affect it. But maybe that’s OK?”
From Variety US