‘Babylon’: Samara Weaving Joins Her Doppelganger Margot Robbie In Damien Chazelle’s 1920s Hollywood Drama
There are plenty of celebrity doppelgangers in Hollywood you’re probably positive you’ve never seen in the same room before. Bryce Dallas Howard and Jessica Chastain.Dermot Mulroney and Dylan McDermott. And of course, the cadre of blonde-haired, big-eyed women who all kind of look likeMargot Robbie. But now we’ll get to see one of Robbie’s doppelgangers show up in the same room as her, with the casting ofSamara Weavingin theDamien Chazelle-directed 1920s Hollywood dramaBabylon, which already stars Robbie andBrad Pitt.
According toThe Hollywood Reporter, Weaving, Max Minghella, Lukas Haas, Flea (of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame), Rory Scovel, Eric Roberts, P.J. Byrne, and Damon Gupton have joined the now-sprawling cast ofBabylon, Chazelle’s ode to the golden age of Hollywood. The actors join the already- cast Robbie, Pitt, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, and Katherine Waterston.
Babylonheads into production this month in Los Angeles under Paramount Pictures and will be Chazelle’s much-anticipated follow-up toFirst Man. Chazelle writes and directs the period drama, which is set in the late 1920s “during the movie industry’s transition from silent films to talkies.” Described as “TheGreat Gatsbyon steroids” (which to be fair, we basically already got with Baz Lurhmann’sThe Great Gatsby),Babylonis set to explore “the rise and fall of multiple characters” both fictional and historical.
Most of the newcomers' roles are being kept under wraps, but THR reports that Minghella is playing Irving Thalberg, the famous real-life producer who was MGM’s head of production in the 1920s and 1930s and whom the Oscars' prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award is named after. It seems like a fine enough role for theHandmaid’s Talestar, who, apart from being able to hold his own against the powerhouse that is Elisabeth Moss in that Hulu series, mostly gives solid performances in films likeSpiralandThe Social Network.
There’s not much to add about this batch of newBabyloncast members apart from the fact that Weaving and Robbie are probably going to cause a lot of confusion by appearing in the same movie. If they’re not playing sisters or some kind of relation, it would be ridiculous. But apart from looking a lot like Robbie (which, to be fair, she shares that distinction with likefive other people), Weaving is a rising talent in her own right, giving a breakout performance in 2019’s fantasticReady or Not.
Olivia Hamilton, Matt Plouffe and Marc Platt are producingBabylonwhile Tobey Maguire, Helen Estabrook and Adam Siegel will executive produce. Paramount plans a limited release onDecember 25, 2022,before going wideJanuary 6, 2023.
