It still seems like not even Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza) can take Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln) out of retirement, but with the Oscar winner in it or not, the acclaimed director is moving on with his next project. Anderson‘s next movie is still untitled, but Warner Bros. announced today that its release is already planned out: It will come out on August 8, 2025, and it will be the filmmaker’s first-ever title released in IMAX.
The release strategy suggests that Anderson’s next project might be big in scale. It wouldn’t be a first, though: Some of the director’s films like There Will Be Blood are perfectly suited for massive screens. The difference, however, is that the new project is being considered for extra large screens from its inception, which makes all the difference for a director’s (and director of photography’s) vision as to the scope of what they can capture with the camera.
PTA Gathers a Massive Cast for His Next Project
The story of Paul Thomas Anderson‘s next movie is still kept under lock and key, but one thing we know for sure is that it attracted a lot of star power. The cast members announced so far include Leonardo DiCaprio (Killers of the Flower Moon), Sean Penn (Asphalt City), Regina Hall (Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul.), Teyana Taylor (The Book of Clarence), Wood Harris (Creed III), Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza) and Chase Infiniti (Presumed Innocent). With a relatively close release date in sight, it’s possible we’ll start hearing more and more from it in the coming months.
The movie’s release date was also not selected by chance. Considering that Anderson is a frequent name during the awards season, it’s possible that Warner Bros. is already anticipating that the movie will be a big contender in early 2026. The August release date puts it positioned in a way that voters don’t quickly forget about it, but also takes a bit of the summer moviegoing audience that Hollywood is constantly trying to attract.
Additionally, the new movie’s release strategy also speaks to the new dawn of IMAX theaters. Even though they’ve been around for quite a while, last year the massive movie theaters saw a spike in interest when Christopher Nolan decided to shoot the entirety of Oppenheimer in IMAX cameras — which, in turn, made viewers flock to IMAX screenings in order to check it out the way that the director intended. That made it a pretty good year for IMAX theaters, and it’s safe to say that studios will from now on start looking at the IMAX spectacle as something to be factored into their release strategies.
The still-untitled Paul Thomas Anderson movie premieres on August 8, 2025.
via Collider