More Plot Details Revealed About Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Soggy Bottom’

Not much is currently known about Paul Thomas Anderson’s highly anticipated “Soggy Bottom.” What we do know is that it stars Cooper Hoffman, the 18 year old son of the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman, as a child actor in Hollywood in the early 1970s. Bradley Cooper was cast in the film as well with a Jon Peters-inspired get-up.

There have been rumors pointing towards the character Cooper plays in the film actually being Peters, the producer of 1976’s “A Star is Born,” leading to speculation that this could be about the making of the Streisand-Kristofferson film (cheeky kind-of-casting when you realize Cooper also wrote, directed and starred in his own remake of the film back in 2018). Based on leaked pictures from the secretive set, actress-musician Alana Haim’s does, in fact, look like Barbra Streisand from the same era.

Also seen on-set during the shoot in Encino, California, writer-director-actor-editor Benny Safdie who is rumoured to play real-life politician Joel Wachs. A Los Angeles Councilmember, Wachs was a closeted gay man with a larger-than-life personality who didn’t come out until the late ‘90s. 

Roger Friedman from Showbiz411 just posted more exclusive details about PTA’s latest and it sounds absolutely intriguing.

“Cooper’s character is named Gary, for a reason: his story is modeled on that of producer Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks’s very successful producing partner. Bradley Cooper plays a producer modeled on Jon Peters, the former hairdresser turned Barbra Streisand lover and producer who was played by Warren Beatty in “Shampoo.”

“Goetzman is one of the liked people in Hollywood. He’s had a string of successes with Hanks and their Playtone company. starting with “Band of Brothers” and “That Thing You Do!” But few know his story of being a child actor and working in films like “Yours Mine & Ours” with Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball; or “Divorce American Style”

So “Soggy Bottom” (if that’s what they really call it) sounds like a continuation in a way of Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” But no one will really know until we see it. Two people I spoke to said that early cuts were very enjoyable. Cross fingers.

“Soggy Bottom” is, without a doubt, the most anticipated movie of the year. IMDB has it listed as having a November 26th, 2021 release date in the United States, U.K. and Canada.