The 73rd Venice International Film Festival has selected the musical La La Land starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as the opening night film. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), La La Land will have its world premiere on August 31, 2016 at the Palazzo del Cinema. This year’s festival runs August 31st through September 10th.
“La La Land is a surprising tribute to the golden age of American musicals, from An American in Paris by Vincent Minnelli to New York, New York by Martin Scorsese,” said Festival Director Alberto Barbera. “It is a film that does not merely reinvent the musical genre, it gives it a brand new start. 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.”
“On behalf of the cast and crew of La La Land, I am both thrilled and honored by the festival’s invitation,” stated writer/director Chazelle. “It is deeply humbling for us to join the company of their previous opening night films, and we could not be more excited to share our movie with the audience in Venice.”
In addition to Stone and Gosling, the cast of La La Land includes J. K. Simmons, Finn Wittrock, Sandra Rosko, and John Legend. Lionsgate is planning on releasing the romantic musical in theaters on December 16th 2016.
The Plot: La La Land is a modern take on the classic Hollywood romance, which is heightened by spectacular song-and-dance numbers, as two dreamers struggle to make ends meet while they pursue their passions in a city known for destroying hopes and breaking hearts. Mia (Emma Stone), an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions, and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), a dedicated jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail piano gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
