Paul Thomas Andersonhas assembled an all-star cast for his next movie, which will likely be the most expensive of his career.
Oscar winners Leonardo DiCaprio, long rumored to be in the movie, and Sean Penn, who recently popped up in Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza,” will appear in the untitled film. They join Regina Hall, the “Girls Trip” and “The Hate U Give” standout. Production on the film, which Warner Bros. will produce, is set to start this month in California, the state where nearly all of Anderson’s movies have unfolded. The new Anderson project has a contemporary setting and will be an ensemble piece, according to a source with knowledge of the production.
The film is cloaked in secrecy, so much so that Warner Bros. has tried to keep the mere fact that it was producing the movie under wraps for months. But its price tag has raised eyebrows, with insiders saying the budget is approaching $100 million, a considerable sum for an Anderson picture. He is one of the most masterful filmmakers in the game and a regular Oscar nominee with classics like “Phantom Thread” and “Boogie Nights” on his filmography. He is not, however, a commercial force. “Licorice Pizza,” for instance, lost tens of millions of dollars after to failing to recoup its $40 million budget. Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, who were enlisted to run Warner Bros. in 2022, gave a green light to “Licorice Pizza” when they ran MGM. De Luca and Anderson go way back — the studio executive backed “Boogie Nights” when he was at New Line and Anderson was a rising auteur.
The hope appears to be that DiCaprio, who recently starred in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” will help lift the film’s popular appeal. He continues to be one of the most bankable leading men, having starred in hits like “The Revenant” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” At one point, DiCaprio was set to star in “Boogie Nights,” but, in a sliding doors moment, he dropped out of that film to make a little movie called “Titanic,” giving Mark Wahlberg his big opportunity. Anderson also tried to enlist Penn for “Boogie Nights,” envisioning him for the gonzo role played by Alfred Molina.
Under De Luca and Abdy, Warner Bros. has produced “Alto Knights,” a mob movie with Robert De Niro, an animated version of “Cat in the Hat” and a sequel to “Beetlejuice.” On Tuesday, the studio announced it had enlisted Tom Cruise to create new original and franchise movies and a few hours later removed “Mickey 17,” a sci-fi thriller from Bong Joon-Ho, from the release calendar.
DiCaprio is represented by LBI and Hansen Jacobson; Penn is represented by CAA and Hirsch Wallerstein, Hall is represented by Independent Artists Group, and Anderson is represented by CAA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
Deadline first reported the casting.
