We still don’t know too much about Woody Allen’s upcoming Magic in the Moonlight, and a new set of images (below) doesn’t do much to shed light on the story. However, the shots do give us a tantalizing look at the film’s stellar cast, led by Emma Stone and Colin Firth. With Marcia Gay Harden, Eileen Atkins, Hamish Linklater, Simon McBurney and Jacki Weaver also playing roles, part of me wants to go in with the mystique intact – Allen rarely disappoints, and it would be tricky for him to do so with this cast.
In the past, Allen has fared extremely well by releasing his movies summer months, and no two films are better evidence of that than his last two: 2010’s Midnight in Paris and 2013’s Blue Jasmine. The former, in addition to being Allen’s highest grossing films, won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for three others. And the latter earned Cate Blanchett a Best Actress Oscar while also receiving two other nods. Will this summer’s Magic in the Moonlight be met with as much success?
Early signs are good. Set at the height of the Roaring Twenties along the scenic French Riviera, the romantic comedy stars Firth as an Englishman brought in to expose a young, beautiful psychic (Stone) as a possible fraud. Professional and very, very personal complications arise when he finds himself falling in love with her.
Magic in the Moonlight will bring Allen back to the gorgeous period setting that helped to make Midnight in Paris such a winner, and Stone and Firth are two highly promising leads. The supporting cast is just as exciting, so if Allen has a strong story in place, I could easily see Magic in the Moonlight heating up on the awards circuit.
We’ll find out just what Allen has in store for us when Magic in the Moonlight opens July 25th.
Also, in another piece of exciting Allen news, Jamie Blackley (If I Stay, And While We Were Here) has joined Joaquin Phoenix in the director’s next venture, a movie set in Rhode Island that will focus on “academics, graduate students, and middle- and working-class folks.” We’ll keep you posted as more on that film emerges.
