Warners & PTA “Battle” Over Final Cut?

This week saw the release of the first trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” his first film since “Licorice Pizza” and his biggest budget film to date. That budget is said to be a point of contention for the film studio Warner Bros. Pictures which has had a rough run following the […] The post Warners & PTA “Battle” Over Final Cut? appeared first on Dark Horizons.

Mar 29, 2025 - 03:22

This week saw the release of the first trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” his first film since “Licorice Pizza” and his biggest budget film to date.

That budget is said to be a point of contention for the film studio Warner Bros. Pictures which has had a rough run following the outright bombing of Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie a Deux,” the underwhelming returns for Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17”.

As has previously been reported, Warners film chiefs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy aren’t in the best place right now with Warner Bros. Discovery boss David Zaslav demanding results and cutting costs.

As such, several costly auteur-driven projects the pair have greenlit are under the spotlight with Anderson’s film among them. In a new Variety piece, it is reaffirmed by Warner’s sources that the film is meant for the “widest possible audience”.

But the film will reportedly need to make $260 million globally at the very least to justify it. The trade’s sources say due to the high budget, Anderson agreed to audience testing – marking the first time he’s done so since “Boogie Nights”. Abdy and De Luca then confirmed the film tested in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Dallas.

Their source claims DiCaprio was praised for a ‘quirky’ performance, but it was Benicio del Toro’s character who was the most well received while Sean Penn’s role also received high praise.

The same source also indicates De Luca and Anderson are ‘fighting’ over the final cut of the film which is currently running over 2.5 hours. A different source claims Anderson has voluntarily trimmed around 8-10 minutes from the film following screening feedback.

Either way, the article paints a picture of a studio with low morale at the moment and hope that “Minecraft” might boost that when it opens April 4th.

The post Warners & PTA “Battle” Over Final Cut? appeared first on Dark Horizons.