EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros has Paul Thomas Anderson set to direct Oscar winners Leonardo DiCaprio & Sean Penn and Regina Hall in an untitled film that will begin production this year in California. Anderson wrote the script, and he will produce the film with Sara Murphy and Adam Somner.

The film is currently untitled and they’re keeping the logline under wraps. We have learned that it is a contemporary setting and it is the most commercial one that PTA has attempted, with commensurate budget. It came out of a relationship that Warner Bros Picture Group co-chair/CEOs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy built making PTA’s last film, Licorice Pizza, while they ran MGM. That film got three Oscar noms for Best Picture, and Best Screenplay and Best Director for PTA. While DiCaprio, Penn and Hall are the leads, the new film will have a big ensemble cast that is still falling into place. Anderson has done ensemble in the past, notably with Boogie Nights, the film that De Luca shepherded when he headed production at New Line.

As has become the ritual for any Paul Thomas Anderson picture, after a brief trade announcement giving very little details, set photos are now pouring in, launching a trail of breadcrumbs fit for the sleuthing likes of Doc Sportello. After revealing production would kick off in Eureka, California under the name “BC Project,” star Leonardo DiCaprio has been spotted sporting quite the look, joined by a co-star.

As one can see below, DiCaprio is filming a scene at a restaurant alongside an actress revealed to be newcomer Chase Infiniti, according to Daniel Richtman. While he can often be off the mark with his rumors, doing a bit more digging on her official site and Instagram and the resemblance certainly matches. Infiniti is a recent graduate of Columbia College Chicago Theatre’s Musical Theatre Performance BFA program and only other credit being a role in the forthcoming Presumed Innocent series.

The set image was first posted by Victor Tapia on Facebook from Carmela’s Mexican Restaurant, north of Eureka.

The casting has also further fueled much speculation that Paul Thomas Anderson is taking on a contemporary update of Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, shifting its depiction of Reagan’s reign of terror to the MAGA state of today. If this proves to be the case, we would imagine DiCaprio takes the lead Zoyd Wheeler role, Regina Hall is Frenesi Gates, Chase Infiniti is their daughter Prairie, and Sean Penn plays the villainous Brock Vond.

Paul Thomas Anderson has rounded out the cast of his latest feature. Alana Haim, who made her acting debut in Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, and A Thousand and One break-out Teyana Taylor have been added to the cast, along with Wood Harris and Shayna McHayle.