Margot Robbie may be gearing up to be a Barbie girl in a Barbie world for Greta Gerwig’s fuchsia-toned Mattel biopic in 2023, but the picture most likely to scoop her an Oscar nod next year is her turn in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon. After paying homage to classic Hollywood musicals with 2016’s La La Land, the 37-year-old director will celebrate an earlier period of Tinseltown’s history in his forthcoming drama: the transition from silent films to “talkies”.
Predictably, Chazelle’s ensemble cast for the project is on a par with Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up. Brad Pitt, who previously worked with Robbie on Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, will star as one of the industry’s first male pin-ups. “You know what we have to do… we have to redefine the form,” Pitt’s character declares in early footage released at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. “When I first moved to Hollywood, the signs on all the doors said ‘No actors and no dogs allowed.’ We changed that.” Likely included in that “we”? Babylon’s supporting characters, played by Tobey Maguire, Spike Jonze, Jean Smart, Samara Weaving and Olivia Wilde.
From a fashion perspective, it’s Robbie’s turn as a Hollywood siren that’s set to rival Carey Mulligan’s Daisy Buchanan for pure ’20s glamour. In the CinemaCon clip, Robbie is seen filming an epic in the desert before declaring languorously: “You don’t become a star. You either are one… or you ain’t.” With Babylon only due out in cinemas on 6 January 2023, there’s plenty of time to familiarise yourself with Chazelle’s classic source material; start working your way through John Gilbert and Clara Bow’s oeuvre now.
