Before Babylon’s Christmas Day theatrical debut, Oscar-winning director Damien Chazelle visited TIFF today to present the trailer. Babylon is his epic Hollywood period piece. It will fall on Monday. The image is still accessible.
Jazz and nonstop partying fill the trailer. The scene opens with Margot Robbie’s aspiring movie star using coke. “There was more drugs,” says Chazelle about the era. “They’re building an industry from scratch. Brad Pitt plays the wild mega-star Jack Conrad who falls from balconies, is taken unconscious from cars, shoots firearms, and drives around in cars as Robbie covers his eyes.
“Signs on doors said ‘No Actors or Dogs Allowed’ when I moved to Hollywood,” adds Pitt’s character, “we changed that.”
“A few things happen, which is movies, and the town turns into a megalopolis,” says Chazelle. “To do that, you need a crazy person.”
Robbie screams, “Hey big dick Mr. Men, who wants to see me fighting snakes?” as the trailer comes to an end. Pitt’s ego applauds her, exclaiming, “Fuck, yeah!”
“After the quietness of First Man, I wanted to do something boisterous and loud,” said Chazelle about his pivot to Babylon.
“Babylon was the biggest number of roles I have ever jungled. The casting process took a long, long time. Mostly a fictional film. All the characters are fictional but inspired by composites of real-life people,” the filmmaker said.
The video that Paramount debuted to Babylon back in April at CinemaCon was different from what we saw today, even with the inclusion of the film’s massive sword-and-Sandel production and large jazz party scenes. Pitt’s Conrad was shown in the CinemaCon tape delivering the “No Actors” allowed statement as Robbie’s character demanded her close-up and said, “You don’t become a star, you either are one or you ain’t.”
Babylon premieres on Christmas and expands on January 6.
Check out the trailer below:
