By the end of this year, every actor in Hollywood will either be in Knives Out 2 or Babylon, Damien Chazelle’s ode to Hollywood. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Max Minghella and Samara Weaving have joined the project that already includes Lukas Haas, Rory Scovel, Eric Roberts, P.J. Byrne, and Damon Gupton. And before this casting blast, the cast also included Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, and Katherine Waterston. Oh, and Flea, of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Back to the Future Part II fame, is getting involved, too. None of the roles for the cast of thousands has been officially announced, but per THR, “it is believed that Minghella is playing Irving Thalberg.†Thalberg was the boy-wonder producer at MGM until his untimely death, and was recently played by Ferdinand Kingsley in Mank.
How will Chazelle use these stars, including the borderline identical Robbie and Weaving? Unclear. Little is known about the plot of Babylon, other than that it will be set during the transition to talkies and that it’s like “The Great Gatsby on steroids.†Obviously the source quoted in THR is speaking figuratively, but can you imagine a Great Gatsby where everyone has biceps the size of Easter hams and butt acne? Where Tom doesn’t shoot Gatsby, he rips him in half like a phone book? It’s in the public domain now, so get on it folks.