I’m hearing some concerning things in regards to the timeline of Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming untitled project. The writer’s strike might have delayed the summer shoot planned for the film.
According to my source, for the time being, the strike has halted progress on the film, which originally had set-up a July production date. It’ll all depend how long the strike goes on for.
There are no updates on whether the script had even been completed but, my source says, PTA is tentatively postponing production. Even with a completed screenplay, he tends to do rewrites during the shooting of his films and that is not at all possible given the current rules.
Strike rules state that as a member of the WGA, PTA would not be able to make any changes while on set. This same person tells me that PTA “is absolutely supportive of the strike and will do whatever he can to support it.”
This could, in effect, shake up the actors involved in the film as well. Rumored so far have been Leonardo Dicaprio, Viggo Mortensen and Regina Hall. Obviously, I doubt any AI will be used here — thank the cinematic heavens for that.
We’ll just have to wait and see now. There’s nothing more to it. Plenty of other productions are in the same position. I wouldn’t be surprised if Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2,” set to shoot this summer, also gets delayed. Ditto Tarantino’s “The Movie Critic” set for an early fall shoot.
These are very peculiar times right now in the industry. As writers strike, there’s also an unknown change occurring, not just with the playing around with AI but also with studios second-guessing upcoming projects, especially non-IP ones.
What I do know is that signs are pointing to the strike not ending anytime soon.