BABYLON (2022): Damien Chazelle’s Film Exists in a 2-Hour Version Shot in the Filmmaker’s Backyard

Babylon was Once Much Shorter and Shot on an iPhone

Damien Chazelle‘s Babylon was once made on the acclaimed director’s iPhone in a version that ran about an hour shorter than the current film.

Releasing Babylon wide too soon may have hurt its chances of box-office glory. The three-hour plus epic film took a huge risk opening in a wide release rather than a platform release. It may not have mattered how the studio opened it because CinemaScore audiences weren’t amused. It earned just a “C+” CinemaScore grade. It has now been revealed that a two-hour version of the movie was shot on Chazelle’s iPhone but superstars Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt were not in it.

Two of Babylon‘s stars, Diego Calva and Olivia Hamilton, were in the shorter version of the long movie which was filmed in Chazelle’s own backyard. Hamilton is also Chazelle’s wife. The whole idea of a shorter version of the bloated (but entertaining) movie makes one wonder how the iPhone movie was done exactly. It was reported that the movie is indeed (and obviously) much more bare bones than the lavish spectacle which was the finished product that made it to theaters.

Industry experts have sadly pegged Babylon a flop. It was probably Paramount’s confidence in Chazelle, Pitt and Robbie that led to them releasing the picture too wide, too soon. It is essentially an art house movie that Paramount should be proud to have made, nevertheless. It never really stood a chance at huge box-office glory and when I believed it did, I had not yet seen the finished product.

It may be interesting if one day, audiences get to see the two-hour iPhone version of Babylon and get to see some of Chazelle’s intentions that may have been lost in the finished product. Sometimes, less is more and who knows if that could be the case here?

Babylon, the three-hour plus version, had three great scenes and no bad scenes but it would have needed a lot more great scenes to overcome the film’s lengthy running time and get audiences into theater seats. Still, Chazelle shouldn’t see this as a defeat even if it is his second box-office disappointment (following 2018’s First Man). He directed two of the best movies of the decade in which they were released–Whiplash and La La Land.

Babylon is ultimately the type of movie that audiences appreciate over time and watch on streaming where they can take bathroom breaks and pause the movie. Avatar: The Way of Water is also three hours-plus and is doing just fine but, perhaps, that movie is playing to younger crowds. Adult movies are struggling a bit these days.

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