Paul Thomas Anderson & Warner Bros Set Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Regina Hall For Next Film
Summary
- Paul Thomas Anderson’s next film will feature Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Regina Hall as the lead actors. The project will have a significant ensemble cast.
- The untitled project, set in a contemporary setting, will be Anderson’s most commercial effort to date with a budget of around $100 million.
- Warner Bros. is spearheading the project, building on their prior working relationship with Anderson after the success of Licorice Pizza.
Paul Thomas Anderson is gearing up for his next film, and he has set Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Regina Hall to lead his upcoming endeavor.
Per Deadline, Anderson has tapped Oscar Winners DiCaprio, Penn, and Independent Spirit Award nominee Hall, to headline his next directorial effort that is set to begin shooting this year in California. The untitled project will also be written by Anderson, and he will share producing duties with Sara Murphy and Adam Somner. Also, while DiCaprio, Penn, and Hall are the leads, the project will have a significant ensemble cast that is still being filled out.
Not much is known about the project other than the fact that it is said to take place in a contemporary setting, and it will be the director’s most commercial effort to date, with Variety reporting the budget is approaching $100 million. Anderson is known for his critical fare such as The Master, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood, so a more commercial direction would be a bit of a departure for a filmmaker known more for tales of flawed and desperate characters and dysfunctional families.
Licorice Pizza set up Paul Thomas Anderson’s next project with Warner Bros.
The project is being spearheaded by Warner Bros Picture Group co-CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, who already have a prior working relationship with Anderson after putting together his last film, Licorice Pizza, while the duo was at MGM. Released in 2021, Licorice Pizza was another critically acclaimed effort from the director, earning three nominations at the 94th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. The project was also warmly received by the National Board of Review, the American Film Institute, the Golden Globe Awards, and the BAFTA Awards, where it took home the prize for Best Original Screenplay. De Luca also worked with Anderson early in his career when he guided the production of Boogie Nights while working at New Line.
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News of Anderson’s collaboration with Warner Bros. follows the announcement that the studio entered into a new deal with Tom Cruise for the actor to produce original and franchise films from his very own office on the Burbank lot in California. The studio is coming off 2023’s mega-hit Barbie, which grossed $1.4 billion worldwide and has been an awards favorite, but they have seen their fair share of bad news in 2023 with the less-than-desirable end of the DCEU and the shelving of films for tax write-offs, making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
This will mark DiCaprio’s first collaboration with Anderson. The actor is currently riding the wave of awards season courtesy of Killers of the Flower Moon, which just earned him a SAG nomination as a part of the film’s cast ensemble, and is set to hit Apple TV+ on Friday, Jan. 12. Penn previously worked with Anderson in Licorice Pizza and also appears in Sony Pictures Classics’ Daddio, alongside Dakota Johnson, while Hall was last seen in Peacock’s The Best Man: The Final Chapter.
