La La Land’s Chazelle partners with Netflix for TV musical

LOS ANGELES – Damien Chazelle, the Oscar-winning director of hit movie La La Land, has another musical in the works, this time a multilingual television series set in Paris.

Streaming company Netflix said on Friday it was teaming up with Chazelle on The Eddy, an eight-part series that will be shot in France with dialogue in French, English, and Arabic.

It described The Eddy as a musical drama set in contemporary multicultural Paris revolving around a club, its owner, the house band, and the chaotic city that surrounds them.

“I’ve always dreamed of shooting in Paris,” Chazelle, 32, whose father is French, said in a statement.

The project marks the latest coup for Netflix, which has upended the television industry in the past five years by investing in bold original content that has attracted big names and won multiple awards.

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos told Hollywood trade paper Variety last month that the company plans to spend $7 billion on television and film content next year.

La La Land, a romantic musical set in modern-day Los Angeles about the dreams and challenges of a struggling young actress and a jazz musician, wowed audiences worldwide and won six Oscars in February, including for directing, music and for Emma Stone’s lead actress role.

No casting was announced for The Eddy, which will be executive produced by Chazelle, who will also direct two episodes. The music will be written by Glen Ballard, a six-time Grammy winner who worked on the Michael Jackson album Bad and Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, Netflix said.

Chazelle’s next project is a feature film about the life of US astronaut Neil Armstrong, who was the first man to walk on the moon in 1969. Called First Man, the Universal Pictures release is expected to arrive in movie theaters in October 2018. – Reuters