home videos

Damien Chazelle Has a Two-Hour Cut of Babylon in His iPhone Camera Roll

Photo: Paramount Pictures/YouTube

Here’s some vindicating news for anyone who thought Babylon was too Baby-long: A shorter version of the extravagant drama set in 1920s Hollywood does in fact exist. The final movie has a run time of more than three hours, but per Entertainment Weekly, director Damien Chazelle revealed during a recent Q&A that he shot a snappier cut before filming officially began. “It’s a very tight, two-hour version of the entire movie, [filmed] on an iPhone in our backyard,†he said in an impressively subtle flex of the size of his phone storage and his outdoor space. For this homemade video, he recruited just two actors. Olivia Hamilton (who is also Chazelle’s wife) played director Ruth Adler, and Diego Calva played assistant turned producer Manny Torres. “We rehearsed the whole movie in his backyard, only Olivia, Damien, and I,†Calva confirmed during the Q&A. “It was a very uncommon kind of situation.†In addition to Hamilton and Calva, the movie’s final cast includes Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Tobey Maguire, Li Jun Li, Jovan Adepo, and Jean Smart. Babylon is in theaters — and Chazelle’s camera roll — now.

Damien Chazelle Shot a Two-Hour Cut of Babylon on His iPhone