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Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone musical La La Land to open Venice film festival
Baku, June 20, AZERTAC
Whiplash director Damien Chazelle’s musical romance La La Land is set to open this year’s Venice film festival, according to The Guardian.
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 31 August. 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. JK 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.”