Tobey Maguire is playing Charlie Chaplin in Damien Chazelle's Babylon
The first footage from the movie played at CinemaCon
The first footage from La La Land director Damien Chazelle's Babylon was shown at CinemaCon – and it revealed Tobey Maguire is playing screen legend Charlie Chaplin in the upcoming film. Maguire is also onboard as an executive producer.
Babylon is set in the golden era of Hollywood, and stars Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt as film stars Clara Bow and John Gilbert. Max Minghella plays film producer Irving Thalberg, Li Jun Li plays actor Anna May Wong, and Katherine Waterston, Olivia Wilde, Jean Smart, Samara Weaving, and Spike Jonze round out the cast.
The film takes place in the late '20s amid the change from silent films to talkies. Per Variety, based off the first footage, the film looks to be a cross between Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby (which also starred Maguire), with "loud music, dazzling costumes, and next-level makeup."
Maguire most recently reprised his role as Peter Parker in Spider-Man: No Way Home, opposite Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland. Before that, he hadn't been seen onscreen since 2014's Pawn Sacrifice.
Robbie, meanwhile, will soon be playing Barbie in Greta Gerwig's film of the same name – the first look at the actor in the movie was also unveiled at CinemaCon. As for Pitt, he had a small but memorable role in The Lost City, and is starring in the upcoming Bullet Train.
Babylon hits the big screen this December 25. In the meantime, check out our roundup of all of 2022's major movie release dates for everything else the year has in store for us.
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I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.