UPDATE: Cillian Murphy has been offered the other lead role in Chazelle’s prison flick. Does it take place in the UK?
EARLIER: There’s still some uncertainty surrounding Leonardo DiCaprio and Damien Chazelle’s “Evel Knievel Goes on Tour.” The project appears to be on hold, reportedly awaiting DiCaprio to finalize his involvement.
In the meantime, Chazelle is developing another film — currently untitled — which is set within a prison environment. According to industry insider Daniel Richtman, Daniel Craig has been offered the leading role.
Over the past three years, Craig has starred in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” (2022), returned to Broadway in “Macbeth,” and took on a dramatic role in Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” (2024). He’s also set to reprise his role as Benoit Blanc in “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” releasing in 2025.
The “prison film” was originally set up at Paramount in April 2024 and described as a mid-budget drama with action elements. A fall 2024 production start was initially planned but was later scrapped.
Back in the fall, Chazelle told Vanity Fair he was juggling two projects and hadn’t yet chosen which one to prioritize. His last film, “Babylon,” struggled commercially, earning $63M globally on a budget just shy of $100M. The losses reportedly cost Paramount around $87M. Interestingly, despite its box office failure, Babylon received a much warmer reception in France from both critics and audiences.
Earlier this year, Chazelle revealed that he was nearly finished writing a new script and preparing to pitch it. However, he admitted to feeling uncertain about how the industry would respond to his return following Babylon’s poor domestic performance.
Chazelle’s previous directing work includes acclaimed films like “Whiplash,” “La La Land,”and “First Man.” While “Babylon” had its flaws, many still view it as an ambitious and electrifying piece of cinema that was unfairly dismissed.