Paramount Releases New Trailer for “Babylon,” Starring Diego Calva

Diego Calva is searching for something bigger

Paramount has released a new trailer for Babylon, the Hollywood-set period extravaganza starring the 30-year-old Mexican actor.

Diego CalvaFrom filmmaker Damien Chazelle, the film will open in wide release on December 23rd.

Led by Brad PittMargot Robbie and Calva, the film is billed as an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles, as the industry makes the transition from silent films to talkies. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.

Robbie plays an ambitious up-and-comer who wants “everyone to party forever.” Pitt is wild mega-star Jack Conrad who proclaims, “You know what we have to do? We have to redefine the form, map those dreams and print them into history. Look up and say: Eureka! I am not alone” — this right before to falling ass-backwards off of a balcony.

Chazelle directs from his own script.

Cast also includes Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, Jean Smart, P.J. Byrne, Lukas Haas, Olivia Hamilton, Tobey Maguire, Max Minghella, Rory Scovel, Katherine Waterston, Flea, Jeff Garlin, Eric Roberts, Ethan Suplee, Samara Weaving and Olivia Wilde.

Diego Calva’s Ensemble Film “Babylon” to Open in Wide Release Christmas Weekend

Diego Calva will be spending the Christmas holiday in Babylon

The 30-year-old Mexican actor’s latest ensemble project Babylon, starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, will open in wide release in U.S. theaters on December 23.

Diego Calva, Babylon

The film was originally scheduled to open in limited release during the Christmas holiday, with its wide release on January 6.

Babylon will open in the wake of 20th Century Studios/Disney’s Avatar: The Way of Water on December 16 and will share the marquee nationwide with movies like Sony’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Universal/Dreamworks Animation’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and the expansion of United Artists Releasing’s drama Women Talking.

Set in the 1920s, during Hollywood‘s transition from silent films to sound films, the film follows Manny Torres (Calva) as he pursues a career within the industry, starting as a film assistant.

Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, the film was shot in Santa Clarita, CA, where many silent and early sound movies were made, like Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times.

In addition to Calva, Robbie and Pitt, the ensemble cast also includes Tobey Maguire, Olivia Wilde, Spike Jonze, Max Minghella and Jean Smart.

Diego Calva to Star in Damien Chazelle’s Hollywood Period Feature “Babylon”

Diego Calva is heading to Babylon

The Mexican actor will join the ensemble cast of Damien Chazelle’s Hollywood period Paramount feature Babylon.

Diego Calva

Calva joins the previously announced cast, which includes Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Jovan Adepo and Li Jun Li.

The project, which is set for a Christmas Day 2022 release and a January 6, 2023 expansion, is an R-rated drama, set in the shifting moment in Hollywood when the industry turned from silent film to talkies.

In addition, Calva has signed with WME.

The Mexico City native has starred in the Netflix series Unstoppabland will appear in the upcoming season of the streamer’s Narcos: Mexico

He previously starred in I Promise You Anarchy, which was screened at the Contemporary World Cinema section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. The feature from Julio Hernández Cordón won several awards at festivals like Mix Brasil, Sao Paulo International Film Festival, Lisbon International Film Festival, Costa Rica International Film Festival with Calva receiving the Best Actor award at the Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, Cuba.

Larrain’s “Jackie” Joins the Film Slate at This Year’s AFI Fest

Pablo Larraín’s latest film will get the AFI Fest treatment…

The 40-year-old Chilean director’s latest film Jackie has joined the American Film Institute’s slate of AFI Centerpiece Galas at this year’s AFI Fest.

Pablo Larraín

From Fox Searchlight and starring Oscar winner Natalie Portman, the film will screen on Monday, November 14, at the TCL Chinese Theatre.

Jackie, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival, is an intimate portrait of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, which takes us into the iconic First Lady’s world during the difficult days immediately following her husband’s assassination.

Jackie

Noah Oppenheim penned the screenplay.

In addition to Portman, the film stars Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup and Oscar nominee John Hurt. 

Jackie joins previously announced Mike Mills-directed 20th Century Women; Elle directed by Paul Verhoeven; and Damien Chazelle-helmed La La Land starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.

The AFI Fest runs from November 10-17.

Smollett to Star in Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant”

There’s an out of this world opportunity for Jussie Smollett

The 32-year-old Brazilian American actor/singer has joined the cast of Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant as producers round out the main cast ahead of production, which is now being eyed to start next month.

Jussie Smollett

Smollett joins a list of new additions to the cast that includes Amy Seimetz, Carmen Ejogo and Callie Hernandez. They join previously announced cast members Micahel Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Demian Bichir and Danny McBride.

Plot details are mostly under wraps for what is the second of the planned three films at 20th Century Fox acting as a prequel trilogy to Scott’s Alien movies. Only Fassbender is confirmed to reprise his character from 2012’s Prometheus; it remains unclear whether Noomi Rapace will return.

Smollett plays Jamal Lyon on Fox’s hit primetime soap Empire, which is in the middle of its second season.

Meanwhile, Hernandez, who starred in Machete Kills, recently wrapped shooting Damien Chazelle’s La La Land at Lionsgate opposite Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.

Hernandez to Star Opposite Emma Stone in Lionsgate’s Musical Film “La La Land”

Callie Hernandez is La La Land bound…

The Latina actress has joined the cast of Lionsgate’s film La La Land.

Callie Hernandez

Damien Chazelle’s musical, set in contemporary Los Angeles, stars Ryan Gosling as a jazz pianist and Emma Stone as the aspiring actress he falls in love with. The catch: the city that brought them together may tear them apart, as they soon discover that balancing love and art in such a cutthroat climate isn’t easy.

Hernandez, who has appeared in Robert Rodriguez’s Machete Kills and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, has been cast as on of Stone’s three roommates. The other two roommates will be played by Sonoya Mizuno and Jessica Rothe.

La La Land has already secured a July 15, 2016 release date.

The film originally had Miles Teller and Emma Watson in the works to star. Teller and Chazelle had teamed on Whiplash, and the writer-director penned La La Land before that movie, which landed a Best Picture nomination last year and won him the Adapted Screenplay Oscar. But Teller moved on and Lionsgate scooped up Gosling and Stone in April.

Hernandez’s other credits include television appearances on From Dusk Till Dawn and Members Only. She’ll next star in the upcoming film Cover Girl.

Trailer Released for Mira’s Elijah Wood-Starrer “Grand Piano”

Eugenio Mira’s English-language debut is nothing short of grand

A new trailer has been released for the 36-year-old Spanish filmmaker’s Grand Piano, a thriller starring Elijah Wood as a concert pianist coerced into giving the performance of his life by an unseen sniper.

Eugenio Mira & Elijah Wood

The film, which was written by Damien Chazelle (The Last Exorcism Part II, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench), also stars John Cusack and Kerry Bishé.

Mira is an accomplished composer himself, having scored his own films Agnosia and The Birthday as well as 2007′s Timecrimes from fellow Spaniard Nacho Vigalondo.

Eugenio Mira's Grand Piano

Magnet Releasing acquired the rights to Grand Piano in September when it premiered at Austin’s Fantastic Fest.

The film will be released in theaters on March 7 release following its video on demand (VOD) debut in late January.