Leo DiCaprio Filming New Paul Thomas Anderson Movie -- Because of Leo's Dad?

I REALLY liked Paul Thomas Anderson's sweet little 1970's nostalgia piece "Licorice Pizza" of 2021. My personal favorite movie of that year. I know lots of reasons why, but I think I would lead with the fact that in its opening scene -- accompanied by a very sweet love song called "July Tree," I realized that I was watching a REAL love story, about the love that can occur only between young people -- very real, very painful -- you never really forget it.

The irony was: though it was an addition to the "canon" of the highly regarded Paul Thomas Anderson ("PTA"), I didn't really have much personal allegiance to the PTA canon. It was like with this one, special outta nowhere little tale -- he got to my heart. And that had not happened with the more mean and depressing "Boogie Nights" or the high prestige art of "There Will Be Blood" and "Phantom Thread." However, I very much liked Magnolia(with Tom Cruise doing an arthouse role in the same San Fernando Valley neighborhoods where Licorice Pizza would soon take place) and "Inherent Vice" (another LA nostalgia trip, offbeat, funny and sexy.)

Still, the PTA canon doesn't coalesce for me as does the canons of, say -- Alfred Hitchcock. Or Sam Peckinpah. Or Don Siegel. Or The Coens. Or Alexander Payne. Or QT.

So now, in January of 2024, its been announced that not only does PTA have a follow up to Licorice Pizza , its already up and filming.

It does not have a title. The plot has not been revealed (which, I learned retroactively, was how news reports about Licorice Pizza began -- nobody knew what it was about and it was called "Soggy Bottom" for awhile, given its waterbed subplot) though one plot was leaked that involved a young martial arts artist of some sort -- but now all of that has been rejected as "false."

The casting is intriguing:

Leonardo DiCaprio in his first film for PTA. Leo's about as big as you can cast nowadays and from his side, he needs to add a PTA film after all this work for Scorsese and QT. Interesting: PTA cast Leo's FATHER in a small role in Licorice Pizza(as the cool bearded cat who sells the young lead on waterbeds); was that leverage to get Leo for this one?

Sean Penn. Well, Sean Penn was in Licorice Pizza(playing a barely-disguised William Holden with dapper tailoring, a too-deep voice, and that edge of how movie star personalities can disappoint you in real life.) But to the best of my knowledge, Penn never gave one promotional interview or one quote about Licorice Pizza. He left the promotion to the two young leads(and mainly to Alana Haim to spare Cooper questions about his late father Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and Bradley Cooper. And yet -- here is Penn back for more PTA. (PTA had wanted him, long ago, to play the nutcase drug kingpin played by Alfred Molina in Boogie Nights.)

Regina Hall. PTA has said in the past that he wanted to work with Hall. Her casting gives this PTA film some diversity that not all his films have had. As I recall, there was but one African-American player in "Licorice Pizza" -- the young woman who helped sell Leo DiCaprio's dad sell a waterbed(and the concept OF waterbeds as a business) to Cooper Hoffman's young entrepreneur.

I will note in passing that this casting comes in the wake of Alexander Payne casting African-American Da'Vine Joy Randolph in The Holdovers -- adding a diversity not seen much in Payne movies(About Schmidt, Sideways, Nebraska) -- and that paid off with Randolph getting an Oscar nom (the final pick isn't in as I write this.)

The Location of the film is interesting: filming began last week in Eureka, California and I've read one small internet article about how while no one in that small North Coast city have seen Leo, Sean or Regina around yet, crew members have been using production credit cards at shops and restaurants all over the city.

I've been to Eureka a few times. It is a city next to the ocean and surrounded by redwoods(some of them the giant kind) and yet the city itself is rather financially depressed and rundown. The seaside visuals are dark and gray(its maybe 200 miles north of where Hitchcocks hot The Birds in Bodega Bay.) Much of the timber industry that settled Eureka is gone, what remains is a college town and a lot of marijuana. The whole town smells like marijuana. Its a contact high city. The split between temporary collegians and financially downtrodden townies is palpable.

And into this town have come...Leo and Sean and Regina and PTA and a bunch of crew members boosting the economy.

Clearly, PTA has not returned to Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley for THIS one.

PS. The 1996 movie "Outbreak" with Dustin Hoffman fighting a "Killer COVID" type thing was filmed south of Eureka and there's a great shot near the end showing helicopters high above the redwoods and the ocean -- capturing the region. Jim Careey also filmed the oddball little movie The Majestic in the region.