Paul Thomas Anderson is returning to his San Fernando Valley roots to make a new film set in the 1970s, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

The untitled film will be centered on a high school student who is also a successful child actor. Anderson will write, direct and produce the project through his Ghoulardi Film Company banner. Sources say casting is underway to find the lead and the project features a multitude of roles and could be ensemble in nature or have intersecting storylines.

Sources say Anderson's project, named in the California Film Commission's list of 13 films shooting in the state next year, is planning to go into production in February 2020. Representatives for Anderson declined to comment.

Three of Anderson's previous films — 1997's Boogie Nights, 1999's Magnolia and 2002's Punch-Drunk Love — are set in the San Fernando Valley, the northern stretch of Los Angeles that encompasses communities such as Sherman Oaks, Encino, Tarzana, and is the area where the filmmaker grew up.

Anderson's last film, 2017's period drama Phantom Thread, set within the couture industry in 1950s London, was the first time the filmmaker made a movie outside of the U.S. The movie was nominated for six Oscars, winning for costume design.

Cooper Hoffman, the son of Oscar-winning actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman, is starring in Paul Thomas Anderson's untitled 1970s-set coming-of-age story.

Hoffman is playing the child actor at the center of the movie, which involves multiple storylines and is set in the San Fernando Valley. While the project will feature an ensemble of actors, including Bradley Cooper, Hoffman is the star of the film, with singer-songwriter Alana Haim.

Anderson wrote and will produce the movie via his Ghoulardi Film Company banner, along with Sarah Murphy. The project, which jumped to MGM from Focus Features, is now filming on location in the San Fernando Valley.

MGM had no comment on the casting.

Anderson and Phillip Seymour Hoffman were longtime artistic collaborators, with a professional relationship that began with the writer-director’s 1996 feature debut Hard Eight, and continued through most of Anderson’s catalogue including Boogie Nights, Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia and The Master. Hoffman, who won an Oscar for Capote, died at 46 in 2014.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie finally has an official title: Licorice Pizza. So, scratch off “Soggy Bottom.”

A longtime, and well-respected, Redditor posted a fascinating tidbit on the Blank Check podcast subreddit. Turns out a trailer for PTA’s upcoming film was secretly shown before a repertory screening of “American Graffiti” on 35mm in London earlier today.

“Went to a screening in London of American Graffiti in 35mm. Before the movie they said they had something special to show us. Turns out PTA hand-selected our matinee screening of “American Graffiti” specifically to have the first ever public screening of the Soggy Bottom trailer (that’s not the real title but I won’t spoil it).”

“The trailer ruled and all the rumors seem to be true. PSH’s son is the lead as well as one of the Haim sisters. Bradley Cooper is playing Jon Peters (Star is Born, wink wink).
From what I saw in the trailer I can confirm that it says a lot that he chose to screen the trailer in front of American Graffiti.”

“This trailer seemed like the real thing whenever they decide to release it. I wouldn’t consider it a teaser. It was conventional in the sense that it was a trailer for a throwback 70s PTA movie. The song in the trailer is Life on Mars if that helps.”

“In the trailer Cooper is angrily telling PSH’s son that his girlfriend is called Barbara Streisand [He is most probably playing Streisand’s ex-boyfriend Jon Peters].”

“Licorice Pizza” was a popular record store chain that was founded in ‘70s California. It gets its name from an old Abbott and Costello routine where they unsuccessfully try to sell records (“Well we could sprinkle cornstarch on the bottom and sell them as Licorice Pizzas").

There is still no release date for “Licorice Pizza.