Yesterday, Warner Bros. released the so expected teaser for ‘One Battle After Another’, the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie starred by Leonardo DiCaprio. Check it out below:
A full trailer is expected to be released next week and the movie will premiere on September 26.
This week, on Thursday (23), a test screening of the new Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, happened in Phoenix and some people were invited to watch it. The blogs World of Reel and The Film Stage shared some of impressions and the possible final title for the project: ‘One Battle After Another’. Check out the articles below:
We finally have some concrete details about this one, which garnered positive reactions. Obviously, as with all such screenings, it’s very hard to measure just how good (or bad) a film is going to turn out, so I’m not even going to bother with any of the in-depth reactions I’ve been hearing about.
What I will say is that our initial hunch has proven to be correct. This is, more or less, Anderson’s take on “Vineland,” but in the most mainstream way imaginable. The story is taken straight out of Thomas Pynchon’s novel, although the character’s names have been changed, and there are enough differences for the film to firmly stand on its own.
As far as the title goes, it’s definitely called “One Battle After Another.” Based on what I’ve heard, that’s a very apt description of the entire film which goes from one big elaborate action set-piece after another. It’s a “huge crowd-pleaser” with “lots of stunts and car chases.”
Sean Penn plays Col. Steven J. Lockjaw and he’s a “white supremacist” who somehow had an affair with Teyana Taylor’s character. She ends up leaving him, taking up with with Leonardo Dicaprio’s “Bob” and that’s when Lockjaw tries tracking both of them down. It’s a 3-hour chase movie, but despite its dark themes, is very funny, filled with comedic elements, including slapstick.
According to one source, the best way to describe “One Battle After Another” is as a “big action comedy,” and one can very much witness Jonathan Demme’s influence, especially his great 1988 film “Something Wild,” which itself was a hybrid of action and very dark humor. Anderson’s films seems to have taken Demme’s template, and blown it up into a 3-hour epic.
As far as the performances go, Leonardo DiCaprio is his usual great self, but it’s Sean Penn who seems to steal the show as Lockjaw. Sporting a greyish buzzcut, Penn’s Lockjaw is described as a “great villain” that’ll be giving you some real nightmares once you’ve finished watching the film.
Warner Bros. greenlit PTA’s latest for the whopping sum of (at least) $140 million. The film is said to be PTA’s most “mainstream” film to date.
“I need to start figuring out what the f— to say,” Paul Thomas Anderson recently said when it came to his biggest project yet, a $115 million Warner Bros. summer tentpole with a cast featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Wood Harris, Alana Haim, Benicio del Toro, and Chase Infiniti. The promotion has not begun yet ahead of its August 8 release, but the film, which runs just under three hours, held its first test screening in Phoenix, Arizona at the Harkins Theatres Norterra 14 with the director in attendance and we have the first details.
Speaking with a lucky attendee at the screening, Anderson confirmed the film––which is titled One Battle After Another––is nearly finished, helping squash those unsubstantiated reports of the film being delayed. As early rumors hinted, it is indeed a modern take on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland. While Donald Trump isn’t mentioned, the film does feature white supremacists, notably Sean Penn’s menacing character Col. Steve J. Lockjaw (aka Brock Vond, for those familiar with the book), who gets the second-most screentime after Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, whose name is reportedly Bob but he goes by “Ghetto Pat.” The film captures Lockjaw’s hunt for Teyana Taylor’s character after she leaves him to be with DiCaprio’s character.
While on-set reports revealed a small portion of the tentpole-level spectacle on display, an entirely new arena for PTA, the film itself has even more than expected, with “loads of action and car chases,” including a “phenomenal” car chase in the climax and the “closest we’ll ever get” to a full-on PTA action movie. Our source says “it’s quite batshit crazy,” and don’t expect anything like PTA’s last Pynchon adaptation, Inherent Vice. “It could definitely appeal to a lot of people, starting with Leo and the scale that is present,” they note. Jonny Greenwood’s score also felt complete, one they call “chilling, but very big with techno elements.”
In terms of references, the film’s mix of thrills, humor, and “very moving” emotion recalls Jonathan Demme’s 1986 screwball comedy road movie gem Something Wild as well as Alex Cox’s 1984 sci-fi black comedy Repo Man. Our source confirmed the film does feature sci-fi elements and expertly handles weaving together its multiple tones with a feeling that “you just live in” the movie.
“As far as I’m concerned, he’s underappreciated,” Anderson said of Alex Cox back in 2014. “I was 13 or 14 years old and I recognized the world [of Repo Man]. There such abandon in this movie––it’s focused, it’s funny, it’s outlandish. It’s talky in a way that never feels like a stage play ’cause it’s always moving. Quentin [Tarantino] I’m sure loved this movie, we’ve never talked about it, but there’s Quentin fingerprints all over the way these characters talk to each other.” Speaking of Repo Man‘s night scenes, he added, “I’m always trying to get night exteriors to look the way Robby Müller shot them. I can never do it. I never know how he did it. It doesn’t look like there’s any lights on, it looks like how it really looks and back then — there’s gotta be a million lights on… As long as I keep [making films], I’ll try and get night exteriors to look like Müller.” It sounds like he may have finally succeeded with his latest project.
Today, Deadline posted an update on ‘The Devil in the White City’ and, according to a source, the project is one step closer to happen. The movie was first announced back in 2015, with Leonardo DiCaprio starring it and Martin Scorsese directing; but, in 2019, we learned the movie was not going to happen anymore and, instead, it would become a TV show on Hulu and Leonardo DiCaprio wouldn’t play a part on it anymore: he would produce the movie with his company, Appian Way. But now, it seems like the table has turned and the movie is going to happen. When? We don’t know, but we hope this project becomes reality.
Check out the full article from Deadline below:
EXCLUSIVE: The long-awaited film adaptation of Erik Larson’s bestselling book The Devil in the White City just got a shot of adrenaline, as sources tell Deadline that 20th Century has come on to the project with Leonardo DiCaprio in talks to star and Martin Scorsese in talks to direct. DiCaprio and Scorsese would also produce along with Stacey Sher, Rick Yorn and DiCaprio’s Appian Way partner Jennifer Davisson.
Sources add that there is currently no script for the pic, which is based on Larson’s nonfiction classic Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, first published in 2004.
DiCaprio and Scorsese have been developing the project for some time, and sources say they always felt this was a story that has resonated throughout the years and still does. DiCaprio first landed rights to the book in 2010, and though the project has gone through various stages of development over the years, (including a TV series adaptation at Hulu that never came to fruition), insiders say that following a meeting with 20th Century execs, all parties were on board to tell this story at the theatrical level.
The story follows Dr. HH Holmes, a cunning serial killer believed to have murdered anywhere from 27 to 200 people at a time when the city of Chicago was enthralled with hosting the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. The book plays off the contrasts between the hopeful expectations and wonders presented at the exposition and the dark deeds of Holmes, who maneuvered in its shadows and built a carefully-concealed house of horrors.
This marks another massive victory for David Greenbaum, who leads Disney Live Action and 20th Century Studios and Steve Asbell, president of 20th, who have been on a roll going back to landing another high-profile package: the Bruce Springsteen pic Deliver Me From Nowhere starring Jeremy Allen White. They quickly followed that by landing the sought-after package The Barrier starring Austin Butler with Edward Berger directing. All three projects line up with what Greenbaum wants for 20th: films that that embody commercial, global theatrical and prestige with A-list talent and original filmmaking.
Asbell, Greenbaum and SVP Production Sarah Shepard will be overseeing Devil in the White City for the studio.
Yesterday, 15, Leonardo DiCaprio announced on his official Instagram account that he was donating, with Re:wild – his foundation -, $1 million to fire relief efforts in Los Angeles. Check out the full article:
Leonardo DiCaprio has donated $1 million to Los Angeles fire relief efforts.
“The Los Angeles wildfires are devastating our city,” the Oscar winner wrote in a message on Instagram stories. “I am committing $1 million in partnership with @rewild’s Rapid Response Program to support both urgent needs and post-fire recovery efforts. Initial aid will immediately benefit the LA Fire Department Foundation, California Fire Foundation, World Central Kitchen, California Community Foundation, Pasadena Humane Society and SoCal Fire Fund – organizations providing much-needed resources to our first responders and firefighters, and the people, animals and communities who need it most.”
DiCaprio, who grew up in SoCal, also posted links to each of the organizations to urge others to donate.
According to World of Reel, Leonardo DiCaprio is going to play Evel Knievel on Damien Chazelle’s new movie, which is titled as ‘Evel Knievel on Tour’. Check out more details:
Last month, a report indicated that Damien Chazelle’s next film would tackle stunt devil Evil Knievel, and star Leonardo DiCaprio. It looks like this project is legit. Some more details have now emerged (via Production Weekly).
Firstly, the film is called “Evel Knievel on Tour,” and is written by William Monahan (“The Departed”) and Terrence Winter (“The Wolf of Wall Street,” “The Sopranos”). This will also not be a straight up rise and fall biopic. Instead, the story is set in a single year, 1974, and tackles Knievel’s ambitious planning to jump across Idaho’s Snake River on his motorcycle.
Knievel was an American stunt performer, and entertainer, known for his motorcycle jumps (and bad temper). During his stunt career, Knievel suffered more than 433 bone fractures, earning an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the survivor of “most bones broken in a lifetime.”
Knievel ruined his career when he attacked a man with a baseball bat due an unflattering book written about him. The victim was knocked unconscious and needed major surgery to repair his arm. Knievel served 6 months in jail, but lost all his endorsements and contracts.
Chazelle’s last film, “Babylon,” tanked at the box-office, making $63 million against a production budget of a little under $100 million. “Babylon” ultimately lost Paramount an estimated $87 million. Oddly enough, it was a huge hit in France, with both critics and audiences.
Back in April, Chazelle set up his supposedly next film with Paramount, this one rumored to take place in a prison. It was described as a “mid-budget” drama with action elements. He was supposed to shoot it this fall, but it never happened — did he suddenly get cold feet?
A few months later, Chazelle told Vanity Fair that he was now working on two projects, and didn’t know which one was going to get made first. ‘Evel Knievel’ is still in development, but things are revving up fast enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if it is indeed his next film.
