Olivia Wilde, Spike Jonze, Phoebe Tonkin and Tobey Maguire have joined the call sheet of Babylon, the ode to Hollywood’s golden age that Damien Chazelle is directing for Paramount Pictures.
Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Diego Calva, along with Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Katherine Waterston lead the roll call for the production, slated to go before cameras next week in L.A.
Max Minghella, Lukas Haas, Flea, Rory Scovel, Samara Weaving, Eric Roberts, P.J. Byrne and Damon Gupton are also part of the sprawling cast.
Written by Chazelle and set in the late 1920s during the movie industry’s transition from silent films to talkies, Babylon explores the rise and fall of multiple characters. Around town, the project has been described as “The Great Gatsby on steroids.”
Character details are being kept locked tight, and it is unclear whether Wilde, Jonze, Tonkin and Maguire are playing fictional or historical characters.
Paramount is planning a platformed release, opening limitedly on Dec. 25, 2022, before going wide Jan. 6, 2023.
Olivia Hamilton, Matt Plouffe and Marc Platt are producing.
Maguire is doing double duty on the feature as he is also an exec producer alongside Helen Estabrook and Adam Siegel.
Wilde recently wrapped directing and starring in her thriller, Don’t Worry Darling. The New Line movie also stars Florence Pugh and Chris Pine. She is repped by CAA and Ziffren Brittenham.
Jonze, the acclaimed director of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Her, who last helmed documentary Beastie Boys Story, does make the rare foray in front of the camera. He’s appeared in an episode of HBO’s Girls, Johnny Knoxville feature Bad Grandpa, and had a co-starring role in 1999’s Three Kings, directed by David O. Russell. He is repped by CAA and attorney Warren Dern.
Tonkin is the Australian actress who may be best known for starring in The CW’s The Originals, a spinoff from the network’s hit series The Vampire Diaries. She is repped by Echo Lake Entertainment and Australia’s Marquee Management.
Maguire has been away from the screen for several years. He voiced the narrator in DreamWorks Animation’s 2017 hit, The Boss Baby, and last appeared on screen as reclusive chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer in Ed Zwick’s 2014 drama, Pawn Sacrifice. He is repped by WME and Management 360.