MUSIC, COSTUME DESIGN OF “BABYLON” TAKE SPOTLIGHT IN NEW FEATURETTES

PARAMOUNT Pictures has just shared behind-the-scenes featurettes about the costume design and original score of the eagerly anticipated Babylon, in theaters across the Philippines starting February 1^st.   

Step into the wardrobe of Babylon with costume designer Mary Zophres, and listen to a score for the ages from Academy Award winner Justin Hurwitz, composer of the original soundtrack.

Costume Featurette: https://youtu.be/cPFAHU8Z6EA

Scoring Featurette: https://youtu.be/z3Olw9Qb9vc

The job of creating a wardrobe that was both reminiscent of a bygone era but also timeless fell to award-winning costume designer, Mary Zophres, who reunited for the third time with director Damien Chazelle after working with him on First Man and La La Land, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award.

“This is the kind of movie where the characters largely define themselves through what they’re wearing,” says Chazelle, “so that meant a lot of work for Mary, who was trying to carve out moments for these iconic outfits to give the characters their due at various junctures in the story.”

Meanwhile, years before any cameras rolled on Babylon, Chazelle turned to his longtime collaborator, Justin Hurwitz, who has composed the scores for all of Chazelle’s films, including Whiplash, La La Land and First Man.

“We wanted to give Babylon a musical universe of its own, a sound that wouldn’t be so anachronistic as to take anybody out of the 1920s, but also a far cry from the usual depiction of quaint 20s jazz,” says Hurwitz. “It’s a lot wilder and more aggressive. Something to keep in mind is that the music which was recorded and survived from the 20s is just a tiny sliver of the music that was actually being played in Los Angeles at the time. There was underground music that was never recorded. We wanted to imagine the depth and variety and wild range of sounds that could have been, though we’ll never know. Music that we felt hadn’t been depicted on film before.”

About Babylon

From Damien Chazelle, Babylon is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo and Li Jun Li. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.

Paramount Pictures presents in association with C2 Motion Picture Group, a Marc Platt / Wild Chickens / Organism Pictures Production, a Damien Chazelle Film, Babylon. Written and Directed by Damien Chazelle. Produced by Marc Platt, p.g.a., Matthew Plouffe, p.g.a., Olivia Hamilton, p.g.a. Executive Produced by Michael Beugg, Tobey Maguire, Wyck Godfrey, Helen Estabrook, Adam Siegel, Jason Cloth and Dave Caplan.

Babylon stars Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, P.J. Byrne, Lukas Haas, Olivia Hamilton, Tobey Maguire, Max Minghella, Rory Scovel, Katherine Waterston, Flea, Jeff Garlin, Eric Roberts, Ethan Suplee, Samara Weaving, Olivia Wilde.

Babylon is distributed in the Philippines by Paramount Pictures through Columbia Pictures.

Connect with #BabylonMovie and tag @paramountpicsph

(ROHN ROMULO)