cp-webdeskEmma Stone is exiting Damien Chazelle’s Golden Age Hollywood epic Babylon, with Margot Robbie in talks to replace the Oscar winner.If it happens Robbie would be reteamed with her Once Upon a Time in Hollywood co-star Brad Pitt, who is attached to the Paramount project.
Set in the late 1920s, the movie is said to take place during the movie industry’s transition from silent films to talkies. The rise and fall of fictional and historical characters figure into the proceedings.
Robbie would portray Clara Bow, the early sex symbol and box office star who was Hollywood’s first “It” girl. Pitt would play a fictional character, a silent film star who fails to make the transition to the new technology that, sources say, is based on real-life figure John Gilbert.
The period drama, which landed at the studio prior to the COVID-19 shutdown, was shopped with a Chazelle-penned script that clocked in at a massive 180 pages and a budget in the $80 million to $100 million range.
Marc Platt, who produced Chazelle’s La La Land, will produce Babylon, with Olivia Hamilton, Matthew Plouffe and Tobey Maguire.
Robbie, repped by CAA, will next be seen in the Suicide Squad sequel, reprising her role as Harley Quinn.
