Whiplash director Damien Chazelle’s musical romance La La Land is set to open this year’s Venice film festival.
The film reunites Crazy, Stupid, Love stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, and is pitched as a tribute to Hollywood’s golden age of musicals but will have a contemporary setting. It will premiere in competition on August 31.
This year’s jury will be headed up by Sam Mendes.
Gosling will play a jazz pianist who falls for Stone’s aspiring actor but the two face problems when they become more successful. J.K. Simmons, who won an Oscar for his role in Whiplash, and the singer John Legend also star.
“La La Land is a film that does not merely reinvent the musical genre, it gives it a brand new start,” said Alberto Barbera, Venice artistic director, in a statement.
“If Whiplash was the revelation of a new filmmaker, La La Land is his definitive, albeit precocious, consecration among the great directors of Hollywood’s new firmament.”
Last year’s festival was opened by the survival drama Everest, which received middling reviews and box office, but previous years have seen Oscar winners Birdman and Gravity kick things off.
The 31-year-old Chazelle made his name with the acclaimed drama Whiplash, which won three Oscars and was nominated for two more, including best picture. He also co-wrote the hit sci-fi thriller 10 Cloverfield Lane.
Gosling was most recently seen in action comedy The Nice Guys and will next be seen in Terrence Malick’s Weightless as well as Blade Runner 2. Stone was last seen in Cameron Crowe’s comedy Aloha and has recently completed Battle of the Sexes, where she plays Billie Jean King.
