In the Works: PTA, Guadagnino, and More

Paul Thomas Anderson’s next film—and very likely Daniel Day-Lewis’s last—now has a release date, Christmas Day, and its own website. In Phantom Thread, Anderson “will once again explore a distinctive milieu of the 20th century. The new movie is a drama set in the couture world of 1950s London. The story illuminates the life behind the curtain of an uncompromising dressmaker commissioned by royalty and high society.” Above: Anderson and Day-Lewis at work on their first collaboration, There Will Be Blood (2007).

“Luca Guadagnino is planning a sequel to Call Me by Your Name, which would be set seven years after the events depicted in his acclaimed adaptation of André Aciman’s 2007 novel,” reports Kaleem Aftab for Screen. “Looking even further ahead, Guadagnino said that should a second film be successful, he could envisage Elio [played by Timothée Chalamet] being his own career Antoine Doinel—the recurring fictional character Francois Truffaut featured in several films throughout his career, starting with his debut The 400 Blows (1959).”

Guillermo del Toro and Michael Mann have been hanging out together at the Lumière Film Festival, currently running through Sunday. The Playlist’s Kevin Jagernauth reports that, during his introduction to Mann’s new director’s cut of Heat (1995), Thierry Frémaux, director of the Institut Lumière (and Cannes artistic director), mentioned that del Toro was working on a documentary about Mann. Maybe. As Ed Meza reports for Variety, during his masterclass, in which he “talked about the creative and disturbing influence of the Catholic Church, his own personal Holy Trinity, the unique aspects of cinema . . . , and his Boris Karloff-inspired epiphany,” del Toro also said: “What I offered to Michael yesterday is something I offered to George Miller a few months ago. I offered to go interview him for two weeks to make a book in which we discuss cinema as a craft.”

Book or documentary, both or neither, until something’s confirmed, we also have Meza’s report on the conversation Frémaux moderated with the two filmmakers during which del Toro described Mann’s films as “masterpieces of American cinema.” Meantime, Alfonso Cuarón has posted video of Mann using his smart phone to record del Toro singing a tune at the festival.

Jagernauth also points us to Jacques Morice’s interview with Harmony Korine for Télérama in which the filmmaker claims that he’s already lined up thirty theaters willing to present his forthcoming film with Matthew McConaughey and Snoop Dogg, The Beach Bum, the way he wants it to be experienced. During key scenes in this film about potheads, made “in the spirit of Cheech and Chong,” curls of marijuana smoke would waft through the theater.

Cher is joining Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, and Pierce Brosnan in the cast of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, to be written and directed by Ol Parker. Justin Kroll has more in Variety.

Tommy Lee Jones is joining Casey Affleck in Joe Wright’s Stoner, Andrew Bovell’s adaptation of John Williams’s 1965 novel, and he’s “currently filming the James Gray-directed sci-fi Ad Astra alongside Brad Pitt.” Alex Ritman has more in the Hollywood Reporter.

“Hirokazu Kore-eda has come on board as executive producer of Ten Years Japan, a spinoff of 2015’s Hong Kong indie hit Ten Years,” reports Patrick Frater for Variety. “The original Ten Years movie was a low-budget omnibus film in which five young directors envisaged how Hong Kong would have changed ten years into the future. Three new spinoffs, in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, will use similar principals to deliver a trio of collective features made by up-and-coming directors.”

“Billy Crystal and Ben Schwartz have signed on to star in We Are Unsatisfied, a comedy being helmed by first-time director Matt Ratner,” reports Deadline’s Amanda N’Duka. “Written by Peter Hoare (CBS’ Kevin Can Wait), the film follows the unlikely friendship between a struggling L.A. comedian (Schwartz) who’s forced to move back home to Long Island and finds an unlikely kindred spirit in his alcoholic dermatologist (Crystal).”

Also, Giovanni Ribisi will “reprise his role as Parker Selfridge, the head administrator of RDA,” in all four of James Cameron’s Avatar sequels.

“Netflix has swooped in and nabbed Power, a spec script from Mattson Tomlin that was drawing a lot of interest and bids from multiple studios,” reports Variety’s Brent Lang. Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (Catfish,Nerve) will direct the sci-fi thriller.

Riz Ahmed (The Night Of) is “sealing a deal with Netflix to star in his contemporary adaptation of Hamlet,” reports Deadline’s Anita Busch. “The version was developed by the actor with writer Mike Lesslie (Macbeth,Assassins Creed), whom he’d known from college.”

And Screen’s Jeremy Kay reports that Netflix is planning to spend anywhere between seven and eight billion dollars on content next year. “In an interview with investors, chief content officer Ted Sarandos said the streaming platform was aiming to release approximately eighty original films in 2018.”

Series

In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Amazon is calling off plans to spend $160 million on David O. Russell’s series starring Julianne Moore and Robert De Niro, reports Michael Schneider for IndieWire. “Weinstein Co. was a producer on the untitled series, the details of which had been kept under wraps. . . . ‘We support Amazon’s decision as in light of recent news and out of respect for all those affected we have decided together that it is best to not move forward with this show,’ Russell, De Niro and Moore said in a statement.”

Bae Doo-na (Cloud Atlas,Sense8) will be taking a role in Kingdom, a Netflix series based on Kim Eun-Hee and Yang Kyung-Il’s web comic Burning Hell Shinui Nara, reports AsianWiki. Bae will play an “uinyeo,” a “physician who specialized in treating woman during the Joseon era.”

Bille August (Pelle the Conqueror,Les Misérables) is “set to direct A Fortunate Man, a mini-series based on Nobel prize-winning author Henrik Pontoppidan’s 1898 novel Lykke-Per (Lucky Per),” reports Variety’s Elsa Keslassy.

“Fox has given a pilot production commitment to a single-camera comedy from New Girl creator Liz Meriwether, which has actress/filmmaker Lake Bell attached to star, co-write and direct,” reports Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva. “Bless This Mess centers on a newlywed couple . . . that gives up their drab and unfulfilling lives in NYC and moves to Nebraska to live a simpler life. It doesn’t work out like they planned.”

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