Cillian Murphy Eyed to Star in Damien Chazelle’s New Movie

Preview:

• Cillian Murphy and Daniel Craig may star in Damian Chazelle’s new movie.
• The as-yet-untitled film is reportedly set in a prison.
• Paramount is backing the project.

While his most recent movie, the star-studded dipped into early Hollywood territory that was ‘Babylon’ singularly failed to set the box office alight, writer/director Damien Chazelle clearly hasn’t lost too much of his pull.

The filmmaker, who also brought us the Oscar-winning likes of ‘Whiplash’ and ‘La La Land,’ is busy developing an untitled new project and he’s got his eye on two big name talents to star.

According to Deadline, Cillian Murphy (no stranger to the Oscar stage himself thanks to his lead role in 2023’s ‘Oppenheimer’ and Daniel Craig, who has been getting back to interesting indie work since hanging up his holster in James Bond outing ‘No Time to Die,’ are in negotiations for Chazelle’s latest.

Related Article: Cillian Murphy Does Not Appear in ‘28 Years Later’ Producer Andrew Macdonald Confirms

What’s the story of Damien Chazelle’s new movie?

That’s among the big questions for the new movie –– neither Chazelle nor studio backers Paramount Pictures have revealed anything official about the storyline.

There have been reports that it’s set within the walls of a prison (an ironic coincidence given that ‘Babylon’s performance nearly saw Chazelle thrown into director jail), that it’ll be more of a two-hander (so the new potential casting makes sense) and that it’ll have “action elements,” so read into that what you will.

More concretely, Chazelle will also produce the movie alongside Olivia Hamilton under their Wild Chickens Productions banner.

What else is Damien Chazelle working on?

The untitled project appears to have leapfrogged ahead of another starry movie that the director had cooking up.

Until recently, Chazelle’s main focus was on an Evel Knievel biopic that was to star Leonardo DiCaprio. Yet despite the director and actor developing that film, the latter has decided to pivot instead to work again with Martin Scorsese on his Hawaii-set gangster movie.

In an interesting note, DiCaprio was also interested in the prison pic, and the pair worked towards that one before switching to focus on the Knievel movie, which is back to idling its creative engine now that the actor has headed elsewhere.

Still, that one might yet get its motor running again in future.

Chazelle is clearly looking to put ‘Babylon’ behind him and dive into something new. He admitted on the Talking Pictures podcast to some trepidation about whether he’d get to make something on that scale again:

“I’ve been head in the sand. I’ve been sort of busy writing. So I’ll get a real taste of how it’s changed or not once I get to finish this script and try to actually get it made. I’m in a sort of trepidatious state of mind, but I have no illusions. I won’t get a budget of ‘Babylon’ size any time soon, or at least not on this next one.”

And purely as a producer, Chazelle is attached to his ‘Babylon’ star Brad Pitt’s new movie, action effort ‘Heart of the Beast,’ which has David Ayer in the director’s chair.

Where else can we see Cillian Murphy?

Murphy was an in-demand performer even before he won his Best Actor Oscar for ‘Oppenheimer.’

The movie marked just the latest collaboration with writer/director Christopher Nolan, though interestingly, the filmmaker’s latest movie, ‘The Odyssey’ doesn’t seem to feature the actor (at least, that we know of!) despite starring half of Hollywood.

It’s not like Murphy is hurting for work. He was most recently seen in indie title ‘Small Things Like These,’ which itself is drawing some awards attention.

He will be back on our screens in the ‘Peaky Blinders’ movie for Netflix, reprising the role of crime boss Tommy Shelby. The film has yet to confirm a launch date, but we do know it’s currently called ‘The Immortal Man.’

Then there’s comedy drama ‘Steve,’ in which he plays the titular headteacher who is battling for his reform college’s survival while managing his mental health.

Finally, Murphy’s attached to star in based-on-truth crime/mining drama ‘Blood Runs Coal.’

And on the behind-the-scenes side of things, Murphy is a producer on this year’s ‘28 Years Later,’ which makes sense, since 2002’s horror thriller ‘28 Days Later’ was one of his breakout early roles.

What has Daniel Craig worked on?

Craig might be best known to a wider audience for his role as secret agent James Bond, a role he first played in 2006’s ‘Casino Royale.’

But outside of Bond, he’s enjoyed a healthy career, appearing in the likes of ‘The Mother,’‘Layer Cake,’‘Munich,’ and ‘The Golden Compass.’

Even during his stint in the spy franchise, he found work in movies such as ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ and ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.’

More recently, he appeared in Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Queer’ and has so far made two movies as ace sleuth Benoit Blanc in the ‘Knives Out’ franchise written and directed by Rian Johnson, with a third, ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ due later this year via Netflix.

Finally, the actor is attached to Justin Lin’s action movie ‘Two for the Money’ and will be playing a role in Greta Gerwig’s planned first ‘Narnia’ adaptation.

When will Damien Chazelle’s new movie arrive on screens?

Assuming the casting comes together, Chazelle is looking to kick off filming this year, so the new movie could conceivably be in theaters in 2026.

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