One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2025)

[The Narrator Returns]

The people wanting PTA to leave the past may be interested in the rumor I just read (from the Twitter account of a podcast of some renown) that this will be a sci-fi movie.

[Harvest]

Now that would be welcome and unexpected.

[yoloswegmaster]

He's obviously making a sci-fi/martial arts film that is set in the 1940s and stars Denzel Washington as a jazz player!

[The Narrator Returns]

[Guido]

Didn't he once mention a failed attempt to adapt Pynchon's Vineland? That one does feature female ninjas...

[RIP Film]

I’m just wondering who the hell wouldn’t want PTA to do a jazz 1940s period piece starring Denzel.

They way I see it he’s like Malick in how telling stories from the past is basically part of his aesthetic. Once Malick embraced the present the films started to lose some of their identity.

[rrenault]

I’m just wondering who the hell wouldn’t want PTA to do a jazz 1940s period piece starring Denzel.

They way I see it he’s like Malick in how telling stories from the past is basically part of his aesthetic. Once Malick embraced the present the films started to lose some of their identity.

In fairness, Punch-Drunk Love and Magnolia were both non-period films. The question is would PTA approach a non-period project in the full blown digital age? I think if he did something in the vein of deadbeats and 'have nots' teetering at the edges of showbiz and pursuing the California dream in vain it could potentially work, a less fantastical and romanticized La La Land

[RIP Film]

I should amend that with, I don’t think PTA found himself as a filmmaker until he started doing period work. Just my personal opinion but I think his recent work has been his best and most mature.

[swo17]

So, with his second film?

[RIP Film]

Yeah ok, I forgot Boogie Nights existed, I was thinking around There Will Be Blood and his collaboration with Jonny Greenwood that the modern PTA emerged.

[hearthesilence]

I kind of agree. I always enjoyed his stuff, but I always had reservations until There Will Be Blood - everything seemed to come together from that point on. I want to say his influences became more internalized and his approach to filmmaking (or his general aesthetic) seemed a lot more focused and distilled.

[therewillbeblus]

Didn't he once mention a failed attempt to adapt Pynchon's Vineland? That one does feature female ninjas...

I've been guessing this for a while. I'd say Mason & Dixon, but he's made it clear that he has no interest in miniseries or films longer than ~two hours in recent interviews (and seems to critique himself for going over that 'sweet spot'), so unless he's planning to excise 98% of the novel, it seems unlikely. Vineland is doable - though I'd prefer him take a shot at V. or Bleeding Edge!

[The Narrator Returns]

I'd love a PTA Vineland, but years ago a friend said that Mike Mills would be the ideal adapter of that book and I've not been able to get that out of my head.

[yoloswegmaster]

He's obviously making a sci-fi/martial arts film that is set in the 1940s and stars Denzel Washington as a jazz player!

To add to this madness, Leonardo DiCaprio is being said to star. That's not the biggest surprise though, as it's now being rumored that a prominent (and controversial) figure in today's political realm is going to be portrayed in the film.

[Never Cursed]

Nothing that particular user says should be taken seriously

[MitchPerrywinkle]

I kind of agree. I always enjoyed his stuff, but I always had reservations until There Will Be Blood - everything seemed to come together from that point on. I want to say his influences became more internalized and his approach to filmmaking (or his general aesthetic) seemed a lot more focused and distilled.

Absolutely. His maturity and thematic complexity as a storyteller really blossomed in the second half of his career. Just by his movies set in the 70s alone, you can chart a steady trajectory where his nostalgia for that era stops dominating the narrative as it does in Boogie Nights and begins to sit in tension with the ways a mythic narrative of white masculine ambition and entrepreneurship, one Anderson himself is irresistibly drawn towards, have also deprived so many of a chance to be who they are when they don't neatly fit within that often-violent narrative. And he's shown a fairly strong understanding of the political reality of those circumstances (particularly in Inherent Vice) while rooting his critique of the Crocker Fenways of the world in an unwavering romanticism which, like Anderson's mentor Jonathan Demme, can be liberating while also revealing our contradictory desire for something which gives our identity a sort of social or historical significance. But when history has forgotten us, and society actively promotes a capitalist binary which effaces our idiosyncrasies, who would chide the brokenhearted weirdos in Paul Thomas Anderson's universe for rejoicing in those rare moments they've seen, and felt seen by in return, someone who's just as odd as them?

[The Narrator Returns]

Production Weekly has revealed that DiCaprio, Joaquin Phoenix, Regina Hall, and Viggo Mortensen have joined PTA's next project, which it's seeming very likely is a Vineland adaptation.

[beamish14]

Vineland adaptation.

Holy shit

[therewillbeblus]

Production Weekly has revealed that DiCaprio, Joaquin Phoenix, Regina Hall, and Viggo Mortensen have joined PTA's next project, which it's seeming very likely is a Vineland adaptation.

All recent buzz still points to this, planning to start production in late January in California, Texas, and Mexico - except PTA revealed the setting will be "contemporary." Curious that he'd move away from the novel's 1984 era given his interest in period pieces, but we'll see what develops

[Never Cursed]

PTA's next movie will be for Warners, will star Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Regina Hall, will have a contemporary setting and purportedly be the director's "most commercial effort yet, with budget to match," and will begin filming in two weeks in LA*. More casting news will presumably come by the end of the month.

The Production Weekly posting that "leaked" late last year was fake, btw

EDIT: Jordan Raup says that it's filming in Eureka, CA, also, at the absolute north end of California. Maybe it's Vineland after all, or one of those very indirect adaptations thereof PTA likes to do

[Matt]

I wonder if that is the upcoming project Leo is growing a beard for and didn’t want to talk about on the Golden Globes red carpet.

[therewillbeblus]

As much as I love Phoenix, if he was slated to play Zoyd Wheeler as speculated, it's refreshing to see Penn step into his place, since a) the character would've been too similar to Doc Sportello (note: I only recall the character broadly from reading the book ten years ago), and b) it's exciting to think about Penn returning to a more seasoned version of Jeff Spicoli. Or I could totally see Leo and Penn switching roles, which would also be fun

[aox]

Any insight into what the film is about?

[therewillbeblus]

Any insight into what the film is about?

Spoiler

Sources are saying that it's precisely what we've expected for some time now: A contemporary adaptation of Vineland.

The change to contemporary setting makes sense, as otherwise the film would be retreading similar examinations of systems from Inherent Vice, as well as the general vibe of that book... DiCaprio looks to be playing Zoyd Wheeler, who I recall being somewhat similar to Doc Sportello's character in the book - at least as much as any two main characters can be similar across Pynchon's oeuvre. I'm very interested to see how PTA imbues a modern creative spin to emphasize the themes.. Reagan and his administration's sociopolitical effects were addressed in the last adaptation, or at least foreshadowed by his governorship, and I imagine PTA's found a way to weave in ideas related to our own current, overwhelming political zeitgeist

[aox]

As always TWBB, thanks for your insight.