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One of Hollywood’s most esteemed auteurs is coming to town, and he’s bringing Leo.

Paul Thomas Anderson, the Oscar-nominated writer and director of Boogie Nights, Magnolia and There Will be Blood, has been identified as the man behind the Warner Bros. movie production preparing to shoot here in Humboldt County very soon.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn and Regina Hall have been confirmed as stars of the production, which is filming under the name “BC Project.”

Jordan Raup, editor of the industry website The Film Stage, tweeted this morning:

Asked by Outpost Editor Hank Sims how he knows the movie will be filmed in Eureka, Raup responded, “It’s the location mentioned in extras casting notices for the project.”

The Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commission recently issued a casting call for extras in “BC,” and in a recent call for vehicles from the 1980s and ‘90s the commission wrote, “The film is currently scheduled to shoot the entirety of the project in the area and will depend on many local resources to make it happen.” 

[CORRECTION: The casting call for old cars was actually from the production of An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn, which filmed here in 2016. For “BC,” the commission issued a call for a green Suzuki Geo Tracker or Suzuki Samurai and a white pickup truck. The Outpost regrets the error.]

Deadline reports, “While DiCaprio, Penn and Hall are the leads, the new film will have a big ensemble cast that is still falling into place.”

Rumors have circulated online that Anderson has been working on an adaptation of Vineland, a 1990 postmodern novel set in a fictional version of Humboldt County by author Thomas Pynchon, whose book Inherent Vice was adapted to film by Anderson in 2014. However, recent reporting casts doubt on that. 

From Film Stage:

Scripted by PTA, not much is known about the project, only that it will be set in the present-day (ruling out those Vineland adaptation rumors) and it will be “the most commercial one that PTA has attempted, with commensurate budget.” Variety specifically reports the budget could be as high as $100 million. Expect more casting announcements soon as it will be a large ensemble cast.

Filming is scheduled to begin in the coming weeks.