Damien Chazelle is back with his fifth feature this winter and it is his most ambitious undertaking thus far. Led by Diego Calva, Margot Robbie, and Brad Pitt, the Jazz Age-set epic Babylon lavishly captures Hollywood’s transition from silents to talkies. Also starring Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, P.J. Byrne, Lukas Haas, Olivia Hamilton, Tobey Maguire, Max Minghella, Rory Scovel, Katherine Waterston, Flea, Jeff Garlin, Eric Roberts, Ethan Suplee, Samara Weaving, and Olivia Wilde, the first trailer has now arrived ahead of a late December release.
“They are building a city from scratch and an industry from scratch. It was about capturing the spirit of that time, which I’d say was a lot more wild west,” Chazelle said at TIFF, saying to expect “excess, more drugs, more extreme living on all ends of the spectrum.” Drawing inspiration from La Dolce Vita, Nashville, and The Godfather, he added they are “old-school epics that managed, through a handful of characters, to convey a society changing.”
Watch the uncensored trailer below, along with a censored version.
Babylon opens in limited release on Christmas Day and expands wide on January 6, 2023.