Is Denzel Washington set to feature in Paul Thomas Anderson’s next film?
It’s been a year since the release of Paul Thomas Anderson‘s last film, Liquorice Pizza, and some reports suggest that his next picture could take place in 1940s Los Angeles in the golden era of jazz.
However, Anderson’s movies are known to take a while in production, so it could be some time before we begin to see things really moving forward with this one. After all, there were three or four-year breaks each between Liquorice Pizza, Phantom Thread and Inherent Vice.
Earlier this year, Anderson said that he had been writing another film immediately after Phantom Thread. However, the project was either scrapped or put to one side because of its content; Anderson said that the world in which the film took place was too depressing and “kind of bleak”.
Tiffany Haddish has also previously said that she had been devising some ideas with Anderson since around 2018. She said: “I’ve been talking to him on the telephone! I mean, he put his phone number out there, so I had to call. I’ve talked to him a few times, and we’re probably gonna work together.”
She added: “You know how they got Harlem Nights? I was like, ‘What if we did ‘South Central Nights’ like what South Central used to be? How L.A. was this place where you could come and be free, but it was still very segregated, and how that worked in the relationships, the interracial relationships, and all that dynamic?”
Given that it looks as though Anderson’s next film will take place in 1940s L.A., one name that has been touted early on by World of Reel to be attached to the project is none other than Denzel Washington, who has recently been spotted in public meetings with Anderson.
Washington would be an excellent choice for the project. His role as the titular black leader in 1992’s Malcolm X would leave him well-suited to perform in a film largely focused on the Black musicians of the 1940s jazz scene in Los Angeles.
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