Daniel Craig, Cillian Murphy Eyed to Star in Damien Chazelle’s Next Film

Cillian Murphy and Daniel Craig are in negotiations to star in Damien Chazelle‘s next film.

Chazelle, the Oscar-winning “La La Land” filmmaker, will write and direct the untitled project for Paramount Pictures. He’s also producing with Olivia Hamilton through their company Wild Chickens Productions.

Though plot details haven’t been revealed, the film is expected to be a prison-set drama, according to Deadline, which first reported the news. If Murphy and Craig’s deals close, production is aiming to start later this year.

The film reunites Chazelle with Paramount, which funded the director’s prior theatrical swing, 2022’s “Babylon.” The drug-fueled ode to showbiz, starring Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, became an epic box office disaster with $63 million worldwide against its $80 million budget. Chazelle’s other film credits include “Whiplash” and “First Man.”

Chazelle set a first-look deal with Paramount in 2022. The studio announced in 2024 that Chazelle was working on a new movie — reportedly a biopic about stunt performer Evel Knievel led by Leonardo DiCaprio — but the filmmaker pivoted his attention after DiCaprio dropped out.

Instead, Chazelle will have to settle for working with other A-list talent. Craig, who recently retired as James Bond, will appear next in Rian Johnson’s third “Knives Out” mystery — titled “Wake Up Dead Man” — and Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia” adaptation. Meanwhile, Murphy recently won an Oscar for playing the theoretical physicist who developed the atomic bomb in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer.”