Magic in the Moonlight, the just-announced title of Woody Allen‘s south-of-France period film that costars Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Eileen Atkins and Marcia Gay Harden, sounds a little sappy. It would be a different kettle if it was called Magic Is The Moonlight (i.e., a tune sung by Cliff Richards and Dean Martin) but Allen’s versions sounds…well, a little ding-a-lingy, a little Tiny Tim-ish. The film, apparently set in the 1920s, also stars Hamish Linklater, Simon McBurney and Jacki Weaver (who was at last night’s 12 Years A Slave premiere at the DGA). Pic wrapped in early September and will most likely debut at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival — the geographical connection alone would seem to lock that in.

(l. to r.) Magic in Moonlight costars Colin Firth, some guy and Emma Stone during filming in the South of France.

Stone in period garb.

I don’t know anything but Moonlight looks like a “Scott and Zelda galavanting along the Cote d’Azur in the 1920s” type deal. Firth and Stone may not be literally playing Scott and Zelda, but Firth always plays “droll and sophisticated but emotionally subdued” and Stone always plays “spirited and plucky but soulful underneath.” Do the math.