After wowing audiences this past summer with the Cate Blanchett-starring Blue Jasmine, prolific filmmaker Woody Allen will return to the 1920s setting of his time-traveling hit Midnight in Paris for a star-studded romance titled Magic in the Moonlight. The plot of the film, which is scheduled for release this summer, had been kept tightly under wraps over the past few months, but now an official plot synopsis has hit the web, giving us our first taste of what to expect from the project.
According to The Film Stage, Magic in the Moonlight is “a romantic comedy about an Englishman brought in to help unmask a possible swindle. Personal and professional complications ensue. The film is set in the south of France in the 1920s against a backdrop of wealthy mansions, the Côte d’Azur, jazz joints and fashionable spots for the wealthy of the Jazz Age.”
That’s certainly not much to go on, but Allen’s projects are typically shrouded in secrecy, so it’s surprising that any kind of plot synopsis has hit online so early. Between Midnight in Paris, last summer’s sumptuous adaptation of The Great Gatsby, and now Magic in the Moonlight, the 1920s have been having a long-lasting moment in Hollywood. Allen’s take, however, will almost definitely be very different from any work we’ve seen about the decade thus far. With the terrific cast attached to this project, as well as Allen’s unquestionably skilled direction and sharp writing, I have high hopes for this rom-com.
Magic in the Moonlight stars Emma Stone, Colin Firth, Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver, Eileen Atkins, Hamish Linklater and Simon McBurney. Sony Picture Classics will distribute the film for a July 2014 release date.
What do you make of the first official plot synopsis, and what do you think about Magic in the Moonlight‘s main cast? Are Stone and Firth capable-enough leads to do justice to Allen’s surely witty script? Let us know what you think in the comments section!