Paul Thomas Anderson returns to the San Fernando Valley of the Seventies in the trailer for his next film, Licorice Pizza.
Anderson used the same time and place for his 1997 classic, Boogie Nights, although this new film is decisively not about a well-endowed dishwasher-turned-porn star. Rather, Licorice Pizza centers around a budding child actor played by Cooper Hoffman — son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman — and his high school love interest, played by Haim’s Alana Haim in her first major acting role (Anderson and Haim, the band, have collaborated on several music videos and other projects in the past).
This tumultuous tale of young love is set against the backdrop of Seventies Hollywood, with Anderson offering up a mix of fact and fiction. Bradley Cooper, for instance, plays producer Jon Peters, who dated Barbra Streisand and produced her version of A Star Is Born (some clever casting considering Cooper’s recent remake of the film).
Licorice Pizza boasts a packed ensemble cast that also includes Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Benny Safdie and Maya Rudolph. A release date for the film has yet to be announced. The movie marks Anderson’s first since 2017’s Phantom Thread.