Paul Thomas Anderson is easily one of the most acclaimed directors currently working in the film industry, and with that kind of significance comes a lot of anticipation for any of his upcoming projects. Unfortunately, there really isn’t a lot of information available about what the filmmaker has coming up next. He has made a new movie, and it’s currently dated for release in late November of this year, but we have yet to learn what the title is, and we haven’t seen a single frame. It’s a touch frustrating – but now it more qualifies as weird, as evidently even the studio backing the movie doesn’t seem to be wholly sure as to what’s going on with it.
MGM/United Artists held a presentation this morning at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and it was expected that the majority of the focus would be on Cary Fukunaga's No Time To Die, there was also some hope that the event would shed some light on what Paul Thomas Anderson is presently working on. Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, who are respectively the chairman and the president of the motion picture group at the studio, delivered when it came to the James Bond action, but as for the new Anderson movie, De Luca only had this to say:
We will have news about Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie when he tells us what it is. We’ll have news about Paul’s film very soon, including a title and a first look, so keep an eye out for more about the movie.
The update was delivered with a touch of jokey cadence, but one has to wonder if there isn’t at least a tiny bit of truth in it. The untitled Paul Thomas Anderson movie completed production late last year, and with the release date coming in about three months one has to assume that the film has finished footage to promote – and yet it’s a mystery that we walked away from MGM’s CinemaCon presentation knowing as much about it as we did going in. Given the clout that Anderson has developed over the course of his impressive career, it doesn’t seem totally impossible that he is keeping the studio at arm’s length as he constructs his vision, and at this point isn’t ready to share what he’s working on.
Paul Thomas Anderson's first film since 2017's Phantom Thread, the upcoming film features a cast that includes Bradley Cooper, Cooper Hoffman, Skyler Gisondo, Benny Safdie, and Joseph Cross. It's reportedly set in Los Angeles during the 1970s, and centers on the relationship between an up-and-coming actor and a veteran filmmaker.
The new movie is presently scheduled to get a limited release on November 26 before going nationwide on Christmas Day. When we do finally get a look at the new Paul Thomas Anderson and learn what it’s title is, you’ll find it here on CinemaBlend, and to discover all of the other titles set to be released in what remains of the year, check out our 2021 Movie Release Calendar.
