After a brief stay in London (Phantom Thread) Paul Thomas Anderson is coming back to the states. More specifically, he is coming back to his homeland: The San Fernando Valley.

THR says that Anderson’s next film, still untitled, will begin production next year in Southern California. Fans of Anderson know how special that part of the country is to him. Not only is it where he was born and raised, it’s also where most of his films take place. Southern California is Paul Thomas Anderson’s biggest muse and it’ll be great to see him return.

As for the plot of the film, details are brief but here’s what we do know: the movie will take place in the 1970s and will be about “a high school student who is also a successful child actor.” Apparently the film features a larger cast of characters and may have “intersecting” storylines. That sounds a lot like the Anderson classic Magnolia to me. In other words, that sounds VERY good to me.

As usual, Anderson will write, direct and produce the project.

Anderson is one hell of a filmmaker, perhaps the best of his generation. As his career has progressed, his films have become colder, more clinical and at times harder to digest…not that a P.T. Anderson movie was ever a hilarious romp. I am curious if this new film will be an Anderson throwback, more along the lines of Boogie Nights and Punch-Drunk Love than The Master and Phantom Thread. Don’t expect to hear squat from Anderson himself because the director rarely talks about his movies until they’re ready to be released.

There’s a lot of crazy shit going on in the world but knowing that Paul Thomas Anderson is at work on another movie makes everything just a little bit better, doesn’t it?