Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Hall & Sean Penn to Lead Upcoming Paul Thomas Anderson Project, Filming Begins January 21

by Darian Scalamoni

    Many were speculating when seeing Leonardo DiCaprio at this year's Golden Globes what role he could potentially be growing his facial hair out for again. Well, it looks like we finally have confirmation on that, and it's a role we first reported on back in December. 

    Deadline is now reporting that DiCaprio (Killers of the Flower Moon), Regina Hall (Girls Trip) and Sean Penn (Mystic River) will play the leads in the latest film from the revelatory filmmaker, Paul Thomas Anderson. We previously had reported that DiCaprio was rumored to be the leads alongside Denzel Washington and Tiffany Haddish, but those two roles have since been filled by Penn and Hall, respectively. The report also states that filming on the still-untitled PTA project is set to commence on January 21. 

    It's said that this movie will be the most commercial project that PTA has ever attempted and is due to have a contemporary setting. This is the first feature he's worked on since 2021's Licorice Pizza which starred Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper and Sean Penn. Warner Bros. will produce the project and is off to a hell of a start to 2024 after coming to an agreement on a strategic movie partnership with Tom Cruise as well.

    DiCaprio, who is often one of the most coveted actors in the industry was approached for many different projects in the wake of his potential Oscar nomination for Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon but has settled on finally collaborating with PTA, a dream combination of actor-director for his next project. DiCaprio is also said to have Scorsese's The Wager on the docket in the near future, as well as playing cult leader Jim Jones.

    Penn recently starred in the two-hander Daddio opposite Dakota Johnson which was a part of last year's festival scene and was snatched up by Sony Pictures Classics to be released in the near future. The 2-time Academy Award winner has nothing else on the docket other than this new film.

    Hall has arguably the busiest schedule of all the actors in the film. She is currently filming the musical drama, O'Dessa which has a stacked ensemble that also includes Sadie Sink, Murray Bartlett and Kelvin Harrison Jr. Additionally, we had reported just about a year ago now that Hall will return to Will Packer's Girls Trip 2, which takes place in Ghana.