Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

[Cremildo]

Anderson's next film will be centered on a high school student who is also a successful child actor.

[mfunk9786]

Exciting news indeed! Especially because I am near certain that he's going to want to make this look different than Boogie Nights, and it'll be intriguing to see what form that takes. This is an instance, like Tarantino with Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, where a filmmaker is making a project that he is perhaps specifically equipped to tackle.

[flyonthewall2983]

I wonder if this will be rated PG-13 or even PG. He's talked about wanting to do movies his kids could see.

[Jack Kubrick]

There Will Be Blood is soft-R and his children are probably too young to care/be disturbed by the film content. Paul might direct a film that falls under that umbrella for slightly different reasons.

[knives]

I'll take a wild guess and say you are not a parent.

[Jack Kubrick]

No, I have little interest in ever being a parent and having children. Though that description should discount what I wrote my comment still stands. Where I were on the MPAA ratings board TWBB would be a PG-13 and have little trouble to believe parents would find it concerning for mature teenager kids to watch the film.

[therewillbeblus]

What happens when one of the best working filmmakers at capturing the complexities of adult existential and social crises turns his attention to youth, especially the ages where these states are at their most intense? This just made my day.

[mfunk9786]

I think everyone might be jumping the gun a little, as it's supposed to be an ensemble film that has a nonzero amount of teenage main characters - the little plot hint we've gotten certainly doesn't sound to me like it's going to be centered around more than one main character who's a teenager (so was Boogie Nights!) so I wouldn't jump right to expecting this to be Anderson's pivot to family friendly fare or his answer to Dazed and Confused until we know a lot more.

[therewillbeblus]

I never thought he or she would be the sole focus, and I agree there’s no indication this will be a family friendly fare, but focusing at all on a high school aged kid is something new for PTA. Another ensemble film would be great, and it’ll be interesting to see him take on this project so far removed in his own development from Magnolia.

[flyonthewall2983]

I don't think it will be any more family-friendly than Phantom Thread was, which had a PG-13 rating. I want to say he could be less interested in going into hard-R territory again but like funk said, who knows?

My real hope is that he finally goes back to shooting scope. I'm guessing he's done working with Elswit, and I read that Darius Khondji was DP on Anima, has he done PTA's other recent videos too?

[therewillbeblus]

Phantom Thread was rated R for language (and perhaps informally for adult themes) but I know what you mean.

I have less of an interest in seeing a family friendly picture than PTA applying his mature understanding of human nature to new populations. I agree that he has proven, most clearly with Phantom Thread, that he can address these themes without going hard-R.

[flyonthewall2983]

No idea why I remember it as PG-13. I watch almost everything on streaming services now, which don't make as big a deal about ratings and content like I remember the premium networks doing back in the day. On Netflix it appears in the corner of the screen as a movie starts than goes away. Or maybe I'm too old to care.

[Drucker]

I have a hard time believing PTA is going to make a "family friendly" film and think this speculation will seem silly when we actually are looking at a trailer in a year and a half.

[FrauBlucher]

It depends what kind of family.

[mfunk9786]

I have a hard time believing PTA is going to make a "family friendly" film and think this speculation will seem silly when we actually are looking at a trailer in a year and a half.

He's someone who's shown that his filmography and the way he sees his career is very important to him, sort of in a Kubrickian way, so I can't imagine a tossed off 70s Booksmart or a Linklater-esque remake/airport paperback adaptation or Soderbergh-ian tech demo/small budget feature ever happening for Anderson. But I will stand corrected, of course, if this post looks ridiculous this time next year.

[domino harvey]

PTA’s next film will be for Focus and starts shooting in the spring

[FrauBlucher]

[therewillbeblus]

I wonder if he’ll have it ready by next winter. Phantom Thread wrapped in late April of ‘17 so this may be cutting it a bit close. Either way, couldn’t be more excited for this one.

[mfunk9786]

It'll be ready. Would be shocked if it wasn't unless PTA is back to wanting to do the whole year festival cycle like he hasn't since Punch-Drunk Love. The dude loves rolling out these movies with screenings and self-cut trailers on YouTube way too much to have a bunch of critics seeing the movie months early. I highly doubt that's gonna happen.

[domino harvey]

The article says it's filming through the summer too, though

[mfunk9786]

I suppose we'll see

[JMULL222]

If the movie ends up half as commercial as it sounds then it would seem ideal for a Cannes '21/Summer release schedule.

[FrauBlucher]

The soundtrack for this film should be delicious

[flyonthewall2983]

If the movie ends up half as commercial as it sounds then it would seem ideal for a Cannes '21/Summer release schedule.

A 70's California period piece would be a better fit during that time of year.

[Jack Kubrick]

Film moved from Focus to MGM.