There was a time when it looked liked Whiplash director Damien Chazelle would be reuniting with that film’s star, Miles Teller, and working with Emma Watson on his new, much less violent musical, La La Land. But with Teller out and Watson off to Disney-land for Beauty And The Beast, Chazelle is instead looking at securing Emma Stone for one of the lead roles.
And though he’s recently tried to score Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne to co-star with her, it seems likely that Redmayne will be playing Newt Scamander in the Harry Potter series prequel **Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, thus knocking him out of the running. According to The Wrap, Chazelle is now looking at a possible Crazy, Stupid, Love / **Gangster Squad **reunion, with Ryan Gosling his current choice as leading man. There’s no indication that Gosling (who recently sat down for a chat with our podcast) is anywhere close to making a deal yet.
La La Land follows two dreamers looking to find fame in Los Angeles, who meet and discover a love connection. There’s aspiring actress Mia (Stone) who is lonely and trying to fit in to a confusing new city, and cocky, charismatic jazz pianist Sebastian, who learns that juggling a relationship and art in the unforgiving City of Angels is no easy task.
Music will also play a big part of the movie, with Chazelle’s director’s statement describing his intent: ”I’d like to make a contemporary musical about LA, starting with the LA we know but slowly building to a vision of the city as romantic metropolis – one that is actually worthy of the dreams it inspires. I'd like to make a musical about the way LA's peculiar rhythms can push its residents to the edge of their emotions–be they hope, desperation or love.”
Stone will next be seen in Woody Allen’s Irrational Man and Cameron Crowe’s Aloha, which will be out in the UK on September 4.