“Licorice Pizza” Trailer: Paul Thomas Anderson Directs Bradley Cooper

The first trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” has arrived online after 35mm copies of the footage shown at exclusive venues such as Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly in Los Angeles earlier this month. The film, previously thought to be titled “Soggy Bottom,” marks Anderson’s follow-up to six-time Oscar nominee “Phantom Thread.” This film earned Anderson his second nomination for Best Director with “There Will Be Blood”. What has the filmmaker planned for his return? Another trip to the 1970s San Fernando Valley that was featured in his breakthrough “Boogie Nights”.

For his latest, Anderson assembled an ensemble cast that includes Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie, Alana Haim, and Cooper Hoffman, sons of the late actor and frequent Anderson collaborator Philip Seymour Hoffman. Cooper plays Jon Peters, the real Hollywood film producer whose credits include Barbra Streisand’s “A Star Is Born” (ironic, given that Cooper directed and starred in his own “A Star Is Born”). Hoffman is the lead role, a teenage actor navigating high school life who befriends Peters. The supporting cast includes Skyler Gisondo, Maya Rudolph and Tom Waits, among others.

Anderson shot the majority of his new film in Los Angeles last fall during the pandemic. Early reports on the project described it as a 1970s ensemble drama set in the San Fernando Valley (think “Magnolia” as part of “Boogie Nights”). “Licorice Pizza” will mark Anderson’s ninth feature film. His previous directorial efforts include “Hard Eight”, “Boogie Nights”, “Magnolia”, “Punch-Drunk Love”, “There Will Be Blood”, “The Master”, “Inherent Vice” and “Phantom Thread”. The latter title was distributed by Focus Features and began its release on the platform during the Christmas holidays.

With a release on the platform in the holiday season, Anderson’s ninth feature joins United Artists / MGM’s strong fall film list. MGM’s distribution arm also has the long-delayed James Bond “No Time to Die” tent pole on the October 8 release schedule, as well as Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci”, starring Adam Driver and Lady Gaga, slated for release. for November 24.

MGM (via United Artists) will open “Licorice Pizza” in a limited version on November 26th. The drama will reach national expansion on December 25. Watch the first trailer for Anderson’s latest in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofnXPwUPEN No

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