Damien Chazelle’s Hollywood Musical ‘La La Land’ Plans Awards-Ready December Release

Writer-director Damien Chazelle set the indie film world on fire in 2014 with his Oscar-winning feature debut “Whiplash,” and everyone has been aggressively anticipating his followup “La La Land” ever since. Starring the very appealing duo of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, “La La Land” is a modern Hollywood musical that Lionsgate subsidiary Summit Entertainment was planning to release this summer on July 15, but news has just hit that the distribution company will be pushing the film back and giving it a more awards-friendly strategy. “La La Land” will open in select theaters on December 2, before expanding nationwide on December 16.

READ MORE: Watch: The Editing in Damien Chazelle’s ‘Whiplash’: A Closer Look

The official synopsis reads: “In this modern take on the Hollywood musical from Damien Chazelle, the Academy Award-nominated writer and director of ‘Whiplash,’ Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) are drawn together by their common desire to do what they love. 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.”

Given Chazelle’s success mixing cinema and music in “Whiplash,” expectations are sky high for this much-anticipated followup. The director also wrote the screenplay, while Jordan Horowitz, Fred Berger, Gary Gilbert and Marc Platt are attached as producers. With new December dates set, all eyes turn towards the fall film festivals, mainly TIFF and NYFF, to see where the film will have its big world premiere.