'La La Land' Featurette Goes Behind The Scenes Of The Modern Musical With Classical Style
Decades ago, musicals were all the rage in Hollywood. Some of the biggest stars in the world were actors and actresses known for their impressive pipes and mesmerizing dance steps, like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Now Whiplash director Damien Chazelle is bringing back that classic style in the modern musical La La Land starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, and a new featurette goes behind the scenes to show how they're making it happen.
Watch the La La Land featurette after the jump.
Up until now, we've only gotten snippets of the song and dance numbers, but this featurette shows off even more of them. Just like the classic musicals from decades ago, they have a fantastical feel to them. There are entire sequences on soundstages with bright colors and tons of dancing extras, a sequence with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone twirling among the stars, and entire highway of Los Angeles traffic breaking out into song. It just looks magical.
Based on everything I've seen and heard from this movie, not to mention all the praise from critics around the web, I have a feeling this is going to end up being one of my favorite movies of the year, and I can barely wait to see it. This looks endlessly charming and just plain beautiful, and we're likely going to see this movie making huge waves at the Oscars when the time comes early next year. But unlike the nostalgic feel of the Best Picture-winning The Artist, this might actually connect with a more mainstream audience too.
A devotee of the jazz legends Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) plays a mean piano himself and is determined to uphold the values of the old masters. His plans include opening his own club, but to make ends meet he's stuck playing tepid cocktail jazz in a humdrum Los Angeles restaurant. Mia (Emma Stone) is a movie buff with an eye for the classics who aspires to be a serious actress. For the moment, the closest she comes to seeing stars is serving lattes in the canteen on the Warner Bros. lot.
Sebastian and Mia meet cute no less than three times before diving headlong into a life-altering romance, but is their love strong enough to weather disappointment, compromise, and ever-burgeoning periods apart?
La La Land gets a limited release on December 2 and goes wide on December 16.