Damien Chazelle to Write, Direct Prison Movie for Paramount

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Damien Chazelle to Write, Direct Prison Movie for Paramount

Damien Chazelle is set to write and direct an upcoming film for Paramount Pictures, the company announced on Thursday.

During its CinemaCon presentation this week, Paramount confirmed that Chazelle would direct the upcoming project based on an original script he wrote. While nothing is known about the project, Deadline noted that insiders say the film will be set inside of a prison.

The movie will be Chazelle’s first project with Paramount since the director signed an overall deal with the studio. According to the company, it’s set to premiere sometime in 2025, although no official production or casting information is known as of now.

Chazelle’s next movie since Babylon

The movie also marks the next film in Chazelle’s catalog since 2022’s Babylon, a film that was extremely divisive amongst its release and considered to be a box office bomb due to its poor performance at the worldwide box office.

As a result of Babylon’s poor performance, Chazelle had hypothesized that whatever his next movie is likely won’t receive as high of a budget that Babylon ($80 million) did.

“Certainly, in financial terms, Babylon didn’t work at all,” said Chazelle. “You try to not have that effect what you’re doing creatively, but, at some level, it can’t help but affect it. But maybe that’s okay? I have very mixed mind about it. Who knows. Maybe I won’t be able to get this one made. I have no idea. We’ll have to wait and see.”