@Photo by Wilson Webb – © 2013 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Paul Thomas Anderson will be directing a new Warner Bros. film that will feature an ensemble cast headed by Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Regina Hall. Few details are known about the as-yet-untitled movie, other than the fact that Anderson will also be writing the script and coproducing it with Sara Murphy and Adam Somner.

The film, says Deadline, will have a “contemporary setting” and will begin production on January 21 in California. Anderson’s Oscar-nominated Licorice Pizza, in which Penn appeared, had earlier been produced by MGM. His new project is another notch in the belt for Warner, which just announced a new partnership deal with Tom Cruise to produce new films.

Under the executive leadership of Michael De Luca and Pam Abry, Warner has been on a mission to reinvigorate its brand. As reported in Deadline, the studio now has the opportunity to “change the narrative” after “rough sailing” in 2023, even with the top-grossing Barbie. The studio is also reportedly trying to cement a deal with Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan, who’d done Tenet for Warner in 2020.

Paul Thomas Anderson, 53, has been nominated for eleven Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and eight BAFTA Awards (winning one for Best Original Screenplay). He has also won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and both the Silver and Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Meanwhile. the stars in Anderson’s new film have also been busy of late. DiCaprio, who has been promoting Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon on the awards circuit, is about to star in The Wager, a new film Scorsese is making for Apple Original. Sean Penn is starring with Dakota Johnson in Daddio, which is being directed by Christy Hall for Sony Pictures Classics. And Regina Hall will be starring in Odessa, a rock opera being directed by Geremy Jasper. She recently starred in Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul, which was well received at Sundance.

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