New Teaser For Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘One Battle After Another’

We’re under 90 days out from the release of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” with the director’s latest officially locked for September 26 release — a slot that’s practically begging for a Venice premiere if Anderson decides to go the festival route.

As expected, the film is being positioned for a deluxe IMAX and 70mm release. If you happened to catch “F1” over the weekend, you may have seen the brand-new teaser, offering fresh glimpses of footage. That teaser is now online, albeit in a shamefully vertical format — a proper widescreen version should surface soon.

Warner Bros still appears to be feeling out the best way to position Anderson’s latest. According to someone who attended a recent test screening, the post-film questionnaire focused less on the movie itself and more on how to actually market it. Their current strategy seems to now be, release a teaser after the trailer. Bold.

This marks Anderson’s first collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio, something the two nearly made happen for “Boogie Nights” in the ‘90s. A few weeks back, I had posted an in-depth reaction from a recent test screening of the film.

“One Battle After Another” is loosely adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s dense 1990 novel “Vineland,” though Anderson has relocated the action from the Reagan-era setting to a contemporary backdrop. DiCaprio stars as a former radical turned fugitive father, quietly raising his daughter off the grid. Their past catches up to them when a ghost from the old days—Sean Penn, playing a white supremacist military figure—comes back into the picture, triggering a cross-country pursuit.

Backing up DiCaprio in the cast are Regina Hall, Benicio del Toro, Teyana Taylor, Wood Harris, Chase Infiniti, and Alana Haim. Word from early test screenings pointed to a heavy dose of thrills, with car chases and explosions. This might be the closest PTA’s ever come to making a full-blown action movie.