Babylon director Damien Chazelle’s rumoured prison movie, made with a smaller budget than his previous work, begins filming in October.
Damien Chazelle remains one of America’s most exciting young filmmakers, having made a string of bold movies before the age of 30. Boasting a filmography that includes Whiplash, La La Land, First Man and Babylon, Chazelle is one of the leading lights in a new generation of Hollywood directors. But as some of his contemporaries such as Greta Gerwig and Ryan Coogler are growing their power bases within the industry, Chazelle finds himself in the curious position of having to fashion a project which is considerably smaller in scale than his last film.
Of course, that last film was 2022’s Babylon, a notorious commercial failure. Charting the excesses, glamour and ugliness of Hollywood’s early years, it failed to make a significant impact at the box office, losing Paramount an estimated $90m. This writer would argue that there’s plenty of merit in the film. There’s no hiding from those numbers, though, and prior to the announcement of his latest film, even Chazelle was publicly admitting that he wasn’t sure if he’d get another project in development any time soon.
Read more: Damien Chazelle to make a prison movie
Those fears proved unfounded however, as back in April we heard that Paramount was backing the Whiplash filmmaker’s next project, rumoured to be set in a prison that would be a mid-budget production. It’s said to be based on an original script by Chazelle and thanks to World Of Reel, we now know that the project – which was fast-tracked by Paramount – will begin shooting in October meaning we can probably expect to get it in front of our eyeballs later next year.
Chazelle’s debut film, Whiplash, was a mid-budget movie that marked him out as a future great, and while things might not have quite gone to plan with Babylon, commercially at least, we’re eager to see just how a stripped-back budget will shape Chazelle’s creative ambitions.
We’ll let you know more on this one, including casting and a synopsis, when we hear it.
