Damian Chazelle's Babylon scheduled for Christmas 2022

Paramount Pictures has announced that Oscar-winning filmmaker Damian Chazelle's next Babylon will be released in US theatres on December 25, 2022.

According to reports, the film will have a limited theatrical release on Christmas 2022, followed by a worldwide release on January 6, 2023.

Starring Brad Pitt in the lead, Chazelle will direct the movie from his own screenplay. Exact plot details are currently under wraps, but the story is said to be set during the movie industry's transition from silent films to talkies in the 1920s.

Margot Robbie is still in negotiations to join the cast after Emma Stone, who won an Oscar for best actress for Chazelle's 2016 movie La La Land, left the project over scheduling issues.

Robbie is in talks to play the role of Clara Bow, the early sex symbol and box office star of the movie industry. Pitt will play a fictional silent film star who fails to make the transition to the new technology. The part is rumoured to be based on real-life figure John Gilbert.

Marc Platt, who produced La La Land, is one of the producers of Babylon, along with Olivia Hamilton, Matthew Plouffe and Tobey Maguire.