Yes, we'd been hearing the whispers just like you...
but then the actors strike happened...
on top of the writers strike...
PTA's long-gestating Licorice Pizza follow-up felt like it was in a precarious place.
But the project that was hinted at gearing up as long ago as November 2022 finally appears to be at our door step, and per Deadline, it just might be a doozy (bold emphasis below is ours):
Warner Bros has Paul Thomas Anderson set to direct Oscar winners Leonardo DiCaprio & Sean Penn and Oscar host Regina Hall in an untitled film that will begin production January 21 in California. Anderson wrote the script, and he will produce the film with Sara Murphy.
The film is currently untitled and they’re keeping the logline under wraps. We have learned that it is a contemporary setting and it is the most commercial one that PTA has attempted, with commensurate budget. It came out of a relationship that Warner Bros Picture Group co-chair/CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy built making PTA’s last film, Licorice Pizza, while they ran MGM. That film got three Oscar noms for Best Picture, and Best Screenplay and Best Director for PTA. While DiCaprio, Penn and Hall are the leads, the new film will have a big ensemble cast that is still falling into place. Anderson has done ensemble in the past, notably with Boogie Nights, the film that De Luca shepherded when he headed production at New Line.
uhhh... Leo & Sean Penn? & Regina Hall? & a big budget?? & his first use of contemporary setting in over 20 years????
Untitled PTA #10 is already sounding... significant.
Assuming Deadline's forecast of the film starting principal photography in just under two weeks (!) is still on track, I think it's fair to expect at least some additional casting details to slip through the grapevine in the quite near future, but we shall see!
We shall see.
