So, it turns out that Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie isn’t cheap. A source is telling Jeff Sneider that Warner Bros. greenlit PTA’s latest for the whopping sum of $175 million. Original reporting had it costing anywhere between $100-$125 million.
Regardless, what an enormous gamble this is given that PTA’s most successful film (“There Will Be Blood”) only managed to make $76 million worldwide. Sure, this latest one has Leonardo DiCaprio in it, and is banking on a Summer 2025 rollout, in IMAX, no less, but it’s turned into the definition of a RISK. I’m not complaining. Give PTA as much money as he wants.
Oh, and, supposedly, PTA’s latest might not even be “Vineland” after all. It could be very loosely based on it, in the same way that “The Master” was based on Pynchon’s “V,” but don’t expect a wall-to-wall adaptation of “Vineland.”
This aligns well with rumors that it could be PTA’s most “mainstream” film to date. What we’ve noticed so far, from on-set leaks, is that the film is action-heavy, with lots of car chase scenes.
I mean, did we really expect Warner Bros to greenlight an R-rated $175 million film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson? It’s, of course, still a possibility — Warner CEO David Zaslav has done wilder things during his tenure as head honcho of Warners, but these latest whispers tell me that PTA is making a very commercial PG-13 film.
The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.