Paul Thomas Anderson pushes back on the idea that the industry no longer greenlights original projects, naming his favorites from 2025 as examples: 'Weapons', 'Bugonia', 'Marty Supreme', etc.
Paul Thomas Anderson Defends 2025 Movies and Shares His Favorites
What's so funny about this is 1. Bugonia is a remake of a Korean film, 2. the director of Weapons was immediately hired to make yet another Resident Evil movie, and 3. Marty Supreme was based on the life of a real person. He's 0/3 on his examples.
I'd call that 2/3. Bugonia is a remake of the Korean "Save the Green Planet", so he's wrong about that being original. "Weapons" is indeed an original film; the director being hired top make yet another Resident Evil film doesn't detract from that. "Marty Supreme" may be a biopic, but it's still an original film, rather than a remake of an earlier film. That does mean that it's an original project.
Ummm, isn't Bugonia a remake of a Korean movie? Definitely not original.
It only counts as a remake if it's a white movie. /s
Oi vey.
Oh i didn't know this
Hollywood greenlights some original stuff but, judging by box office returns, the audiences don't go to see them.
I think Zootopia 2 will have beaten all the films he listed, plus Sinners and maybe One Battle After Another combined in it's first week or so.
So, assuming you're a producer, would you put your money into a safe bet like Jurrassic Park 12 or some indie project that hopefully makes its money back and maybe goes on a bit of a run?
I think Zootopia 2 will have beaten all the films he listed, plus Sinners and maybe One Battle After Another combined in it’s first week or so.
I just checked, and you only need to combine Sinners and Weapons to beat Zootopia 2's first week ($620M), for a lower combined budget.
Oof, you're totally right, I was looking domestic for Weapons.
But, I mean, I think the point still stands. That's one weekend of one sequel which itself is unlikely to be the highest grossing movie of the year.
People don't really watch the original and interesting stuff.
One Battle After Another was great
Saw it in the cinema, it was really good.
Was fun to see DiCaprio in a slightly different role than he usually plays.
Meanwhile at Warners: “HBO needs more doctor/lawyer/cop shows. Oh and let’s rehash Harry Potter while we’re at it.”
https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/hbo-casey-bloys-warner-bros-sale-harry-potter-timeline-1236586785/
https://deadline.com/2025/12/hbo-max-the-pitt-success-international-harry-potter-1236634341/
And at Disney: “Let’s recycle our cartoon hits into live action. Then make them a musical. Then make them a musical cartoon.”
Sadly, that rehashed slop makes WAY more money than original films.
The existence of massive or unoriginal franchises doesn't mean he's wrong.
I gave up on Hollywood years ago. Even the original movies are mostly meh and you have to watch a lot of them to find anything interesting. And the good ones are rarely marketed to you really have to look for them.
Spaceballs 2; super original guys.
Another Naked Gun; ooh! original!
The Matrix 5; we're original, i swear!
"New" Malcolm in the Middle; originality overload!
"New" King of the Hill; such original.
48th Aliens reboot; I'm dying from all this originality!
94th Predator movie; buy one original, get one free!
That's just what i can think of off the top of my head right now. I think he might have noticed a trend, or something...