Damien Chazelle released from “movie jail” to direct a movie about real jail
The director of La La Land, Whiplash, and, yes, Babylon lives to direct again
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Damien Chazelle was released from “movie jail” this afternoon after serving two years for the crime of directing Babylon. At CinemaCon, Paramount Pictures announced Damien Chazelle’s next movie would release in 2025. Ironically enough, it’s a movie about prison.
Few bombs explode quite like Babylon did in 2022. Maybe it’s because the movie opens with a gaping elephant anus defecating right to the camera. Perhaps the only way to read such a shot is by assuming that its director, Damien Chazelle, is taking a dump on the audience. It’s not a great way to ingratiate viewers into a world where Brad Pitt goes on tangents about Hollywood every five minutes, but it didn’t matter either. Audiences stayed away from Babylon. Far away. Like the other side of the planet away. The movie failed to recoup its budget and couple that with derision from critics and awards voters, and suddenly Twitter users are calling Margot Robbie box office poison. What a difference six months makes.
No one’s career took a harder hit than director Damien Chazelle, though. After two promising Oscar contenders, Whiplash and La La Land, and an offbeat spaceman drama, First Man, it looked like Chazelle would be out of the movie game for a while. Movie jail, where the likes of Francis Ford Coppola and Michael Cimino spent large swaths of their careers, is a typical punishment for having the gall to release a flop, and Chazelle thought he was going to do time or at least get some parole. Last month, he told the Talking Pictures podcast that he might not be able to get another movie made.
“I’ve been head in the sand. I’ve been sort of busy writing. So I’ll get a real taste of how it’s changed or not once I get to finish this script and try to actually get it made,” Chazelle said. “I’m in a sort of trepidatious state of mind, but I have no illusions. I won’t get a budget of Babylonsize any time soon, or at least not on this next one.”
Of course, Paramount and Chazelle are locked together by an overall deal he signed with the studio just ahead of Babylon’s release. Chazelle wrote the new movie, but that doesn’t really tell us much about it, except that one of the characters will probably be obsessed with jazz.
17 Comments
phew!
Yeah, but it’s one of those country club prisons.
The gap between Whiplash and La La Land was two years, the gap between La La Land and First Man was two years, the gap between First Man and Babylon was four years, and the gap between Babylon and this new one will be three years.That’s not punishment or director’s jail, that’s him progressing at a pretty even pace.
Came to say the same. The vast majority of directors would love to be making a movie every 2-3 years. Chazelle may have felt like he was in jail because no one was lining up to offer him $80m to direct his next movie, but he wasn’t.
I listen to that podcast (it’s good). In context, the interviewer asked him about Babylon and how it didn’t do well and what does that mean for making another film. Chazelle answered that he didn’t know yet but he’d find out soon when he went to make another. I don’t if either of them talked about “movie jail.” But, more just the realities that if Chazelle makes an $80 million film and it doesn’t make its money back, he doesn’t get $80 mil for his next film. He has to work his way back up. Suffice to say, I don’t think he said he felt like he was in “movie jail” in that interview.
“and an offbeat spaceman drama, First Man”I don’t even know how to respond to that description of First Man.
maybe in this movie he’ll just shamelessly copy the plot to Shawshank Redemption beat by beat and then at the end the main character can go to the theater to watch Shawshank and crythen in his next movie he can have a lady get chased by a time-travelling robot and then she’ll go to the theater to watch The Terminator and cryperhaps two guys could dress as women to run away from gangsters then at the end they’ll go to the theater to watch Some Like it Hot and crysurely the Babylon formula can still work
Babylon is not a copy of Singing in the Rain.
Babylon was probably my biggest disappointment of that year, but I still appreciate the effort. It might not have been especially novel subject matter, but it was still a change of pace from most other movies these days. A swing and a miss can still be interesting to watch, whereas hardly anything redeems a Jurassic World if it happens to suck.
I really wanted to like it and just couldn’t.
I liked the film more than most, it seems, but good God how I hated Margot Robbie’s character.
Yes it was a giant mess, but I actually enjoyed Babylon.
I started watching the first hour last night and have enjoyed the heck out of it so far. It’s made me laugh a few times. Hopefully, the end doesn’t shit itself like an elephant being transported up a mountain.
Babylon is watchable.
Kind of weird that AV Club slams Babylon and then also inserts a link to their review where they gave it a solid A and called it a masterpiece
It’s odd the article references it being a movie about prison, and gives us no citation of that, or any description of anything about the movie other than its setting.
Right!? I thought they had a scoop as I hadn’t seen anyone else state what the film was about. But, now I’m not so sure.