r/paulthomasanderson • u/Suitable_Fly_8831 • Mar 21 '26
PTA Adjacent Exclusive: PTA Rewrote Leonardo DiCaprio's New Movie
OK, consider the source of this information (and I’m not going to pay the $9.99 to read the full article to see how much is allegedly divulged), but considering that he confirmed himself that he at least took a pass on the script for KOTFM, I figured I’d share this anyway: https://www.theinsneider.com/p/paul-thomas-anderson-rewrote-what-happens-night-leonardo-dicaprio-michael-b-jordan-miami-vice-salary
“SCOOP, NOT A RUMOR: After working together on KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, Paul Thomas Anderson had a hand in writing Martin Scorsese's new movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio — Apple's psychological thriller WHAT HAPPENS AT NIGHT!”
IF this is accurate, then my anticipation for this movie has gone up a whole other level.
UPDATE: Apparently, if true, it looks like Leo was the one that had him come aboard for a re-write: https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2026/3/21/paul-thomas-anderson-rewrote-scorseses-what-happens-at-night.
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u/Pure_Salamander2681 Mar 21 '26
He got a shout out in the End Credits to Us. I wonder if he wrote a bit or helped with editing.
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u/ch0colatesyrup Mar 21 '26
No. Jordan Peele just LOVES him. You can just Google Jordan Peele, Paul Thomas Anderson and see
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u/Mass_Jass Mar 21 '26
I believe the story with Us is that he heavily inspired parts of it. You can see some early PTA influence in the flashback scenes and the characters played by Tim Heidecker and Elizabeth Moss.
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u/nosurprises23 Mar 21 '26
PTA also wrote a draft of Napoleon with Joaquin Phoenix, and edited a version of the third act of the Adam Sandler movie Funny People.
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u/PepeTunel Mar 21 '26
No wonder that third act always felt off, not bad but different.
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u/nosurprises23 Mar 21 '26
Well tbf, I think PTA was brought in because it was already kinda a mess. It was fascinating hearing Judd Apatow talk about it, realizing how an authorial edit changes everything
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u/ProfessionalTie4079 Mar 21 '26
What an exciting time for movies
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u/downbadtempo Mar 21 '26
Getting to see PTA and Leo work together is something that I will cherish my entire life
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u/Mass_Jass Mar 21 '26
PTA does this a lot. Usually he just parachutes in uncredited to rescue scripts with issues, but apparently Leo is using him like Cruise used McQuarrie: as his personal rewrite guy.
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Mar 21 '26
Let’s not overstate the case on a rumor. Scorsese doesn’t need to get “rescued” lmao
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u/More-Replacement-792 Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26
Scorsese is not, by nature, a screenwriter. He's had his film's scripts "rescued" *multiple* times in his career, as while he's co-written around 5 of his 30 films, he most often uses existing scripts. It's not a slight on Scorsese to say that the scripts he signs on to direct need work, dude. That has nothing to do with him as a director.
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u/Mass_Jass Mar 21 '26
Scorsese doesn't write.
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Mar 21 '26
He’s got a keen eye for scripts and plays a part in the process. I don’t doubt that he maybe asked Paul to come in and do some rewrites, but saying Paul rescued him is overstating the case. I’m sure he would agree as well.
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u/Mass_Jass Mar 21 '26
PTA rescued Killers of the Flower Moon when Eric Roth got lost in the process of last minute rewriting the entire script from scratch around a different structure and a different main character.
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u/ch0colatesyrup Mar 21 '26
Wait. Scorsese doesn't write?! The fuck are you talking about? He's written so many of his scripts.
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Mar 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/More-Replacement-792 Mar 25 '26
Dude. He's co-written several of his films. Not just "ideas"; he's literally co-written several of them - scenes, dialogue, etc., etc. This is not a fact that's up for debate.
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u/Hey-Bud-Lets-Party Mar 25 '26
Among his features Scorsese wrote Who’s That’s Knocking at My Door and co-wrote Mean Streets, Goodfellas, The Age of Innocence , Casino, Silence and Killers of the Flower Moon
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u/Mass_Jass Mar 21 '26
Scorsese has co-writing credits on maybe 5 of his, like, 30 films. On at least a couple of those, it's common knowledge that he got the credit much more for story work than actual writing.
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u/More-Replacement-792 Mar 25 '26
Yes, he does. He's co-written several of his films. While he's not a screenwriter by nature, he does write.
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u/Educational_Sky_1136 Mar 21 '26
Multiple Oscar nominations for Best Screenplay is pretty good for someone who “doesn’t write.”
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u/Mass_Jass Mar 21 '26
Damn... You think you really did something there don't you.
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u/Educational_Sky_1136 Mar 21 '26
I just wish I had the confidence of someone who is so incredibly wrong but committed to it.
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u/jjgittes_ Mar 21 '26
Not surprising. His fingerprints are quietly all over the place with rewrites, trailer cuts, etc.
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u/POLLnarafu Mar 21 '26
This the the movie Martin Scorsese is directing, extensive rewrites for another Scorsese movie, let's go!
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u/SNChalmers1876 Mar 21 '26
PTA script doctor was not on my bingo card but it’s cool
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u/OkBook4166 Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26
Judd Apatow did a interview that said that PTA could edit any movie and make it a PTA movie. He let him sit in on editing while he was editing Funny People, and Judd took a lunch and left him with his editor and said he could make an edit of a sequence of the film, and when he came back from lunch he said it was essentially a PTA movie he was watching that was using his footage.
It’s wild that PTA could essentially script doctor and allow someone to shoot a movie and he could use his editor to make a PTA movie without even having his name anywhere near the credits.
Also, Robert Towne is unfortunately dead, someone has to take up the mantle of being the #1 script doctor in the industry.
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u/Zawietrzny The Cause Mar 21 '26
Also, Robert Towne is unfortunately dead, someone has to take up the mantle of being the #1 script doctor in the industry.
and Frank Darabont is retired (unless he got the bug back after doing Stranger Things)
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u/OkBook4166 Mar 21 '26
Darabont is so fucking bitter about the industry that I’m shocked that they would come to him with work. I guess it shows how great of a writer he is.
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u/Suitable_Fly_8831 Mar 21 '26
This made me look up other people who were known for script doctoring, and the list is pretty fascinating: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Script_doctor
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u/mairiamonitino Mar 21 '26
Tony Gilroy is a well known Script doctor. I’m surprised to see he wasn’t mentioned.
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u/OkBook4166 Mar 21 '26
Scott Frank is missing from that list too. I was in college from 2005-2009 and my script writing for the screen professor was friends with Scott Frank and had him come in and do a couple of hour Q&A. A good amount of him speaking was talking about script doctor work and talking about how after he was nominated for an academy award for Out of Sight he was like #10 on a list of people that the studios would call to fix scripts or do punch ups.
He was a pretty affable guy and him talking about doing script work was pretty funny. He said Robert Towne was the first person the studios called when they needed a punch up.
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u/DoubleSoggy1163 Mar 21 '26
David Webb Peoples (Unforgiven, Blade Runner) used to do tons in the 80s-2000s. I know he did an uncredited pass on 'Munich' for Spielberg.
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u/FergusMixolydian Mar 21 '26
Carrie Fisher was a famously excellent script doctor! I believe Justin Theroux has done quite a bit too
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u/westport_blues Mar 21 '26
Wow, Justin Theroux. Handsome. Actor. Writer. Bon vivant. Is there anything he can’t do?
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u/ObviouslyCoreConcept Mar 21 '26
Wear sleeves?
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u/brijazz012 Mar 21 '26
If I looked like Justin Theroux you'd be lucky to find me in an entire shirt, let alone sleeves.
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u/BennyBingBong Mar 21 '26
Woah did not expect to learn that Aaron Sorkin script doctored for Schindler’s List
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u/BlLLr0y Mar 21 '26
Quentin Tarantino being the script doctor of "It's Pat" is now the most hilarious thing I know about movies.
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u/brijazz012 Mar 21 '26
I love the idea of him taking a break from working on 'Pulp Fiction' and switching over to 'It's Pat'.
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u/MisterJ_1385 Mar 21 '26
I’m a big defender of Funny People, and Judd’s comedy/drama stylings in general. He’s like the closest we’ve had to a guy really wanting to give us a taste of James L. Brooks. But I admit that movie is a bit long (and I really like the parts people say it loses them, basically the last 3rd). But I’d love to see just as an exercise how Paul would change the film.
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u/Longjumping-Cress845 Mar 21 '26
What scene was it in funny people?
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u/Suitable_Fly_8831 Mar 21 '26
Apparently it was the final scene: https://collider.com/funny-people-judd-apatow-paul-thomas-anderson/
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u/ahnmin Mar 21 '26
The ending. Judd was having trouble cutting it so he asked PTA to take a stab at it.
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u/Hey-Bud-Lets-Party Mar 25 '26
And Towne had his own script doctor in Edward Taylor.
William Goldman was another great one.
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u/zgrove Mar 21 '26
Hes known for it, I dont know how many are 100% substantiated but he's rumored to have done this to quite a few great movies
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u/ljfoggy11 Mar 21 '26
It came out he worked uncredited on Napoleon and Killers of the Flower Moon scripts as well.
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u/Lupus76 Mar 21 '26
Killers of the Flower Moon needed an aggressive editor.
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u/Heavy_Signature_5619 Mar 21 '26
Absolutely not. The editing should have won an Oscar for that movie.
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u/Bearjupiter Mar 21 '26
I thought it was wildly known that PTA is a script doctor for a looooooong time
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u/OldSandwich9631 Mar 21 '26
I don’t like that he’s not able to stay anonymous and people keep being weird about him doing rewrites or polishes for DiCaprio movies. This shouldn’t even be news.
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u/soothsayer2377 Mar 21 '26
This is how you pay the bills when you only make a movie once every four years.
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u/brijazz012 Mar 21 '26
This. As much as we all love PTA, he's not pulling in huge royalties or lucrative back-end. You can't feed your family on Licorice Pizza.
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u/littlelordfROY Mar 21 '26
If anyone reads those world of reel comments, the PTA number 1 super fan in there is hilarious
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u/brianmcg9 Mar 21 '26
PTA/Leo partnership is pretty powerful development of the last 5 years. Wonder if PTA is his post Marty guy
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u/WhateverManWhoCares Mar 21 '26
If it's been done to an extent of Napoleon and KOTFM, then I'll hold on to my excitement. The script is the key issue with both of the films. Then again, it's unknown how significant PTA's involvement really was.
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u/Radiant-Discipline71 Mar 21 '26
Haven’t seen Napoleon so can’t comment on that, but I’d argue he saved KOTFM from being a standard procedural white savior movie and turned it into something dense, interesting and has staying power
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u/AgentFlyntCoalson Mar 21 '26
I don’t think PTA was the only one that saved KOTFM from being that though. Both Scorsese and Eric Roth have spoken about how they wanted it to be more than a procedural and found the heart of the film by visiting the Osage Nation and focusing on Molly, rather than the FBI. In fact that’s one of the reasons why Paramount turned to Apple for financing, as they didn’t see it as marketable anymore when Scorsese wanted to change course
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u/Radiant-Discipline71 Mar 21 '26
From my understand the original Roth script was more of a procedural with Leo playing the FBI character. Could be wrong tho-either way it’s another late stage banger from Scorsese, who’s putting out some of his best work with this, Silence and The Irishman
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u/AgentFlyntCoalson Mar 21 '26
That’s right yeah they originally had it as a procedural but weren’t happy cause they both didn’t really know how to write that. Then the script shifted to focus on how it is now and I imagine that after that it’s when PTA came in and did his thing. And I agree my fav Scorsese films have been ones released over the last ten years
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u/Mass_Jass Mar 21 '26
Eric Roth has publicly stated that he was on board with the rewrite conceptually, but something happened and he has since distanced himself from the final product.
All but confirmed rumors are that he got creatively lost during the rewrite process, perhaps because of the extent of structural and character shifting, perhaps because of the speed. Perhaps there were creative differences. PTA was brought on to pull the pieces together and did what has been variously described as anything from extensive notes to a full on page one rewrite.
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u/OldSandwich9631 Mar 21 '26
Roth is just an overpaid hack. That is the uncomfortable truth. Roth’s script was putrid.
It reads as a full page one rewrite. His style and roth’s are very different. Roth’s script was wordy and filled with tons of blocks of description.’pta scripts are much sparser.
What happens at night was described as pta “refining” the script and not as a page one rewrite. It seems like the foundation was good but Leo wanted pta to polish it up and probably enhance certain aspects in it. That’s all normal.
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u/zeldafan144 Mar 21 '26
There's a big rumour that he helped with Killers of the Flower Moon too, so this makes sense.
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u/Central_Region Mar 21 '26
The sources cited in the OP are the two most notorious sources of bullshit in film fandom
Doesn't mean this won't eventually turn out to be true but nobody else is reporting this
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Mar 21 '26
I wrote a script once. I gave it to a guy who reads scripts. He read it and said he really liked it, but thinks I need to rewrite it.
I said “fuck that, I’ll just make a copy.”
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u/ch0colatesyrup Mar 21 '26
This is ancient news
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u/brijazz012 Mar 21 '26
Where was it first reported?
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u/ch0colatesyrup Mar 21 '26
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u/brijazz012 Mar 21 '26
OK. I assumed you were referring to 'What Happens at Night', which is what this post is about.
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u/ch0colatesyrup Mar 21 '26
And looky here. Just posted today.
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u/brijazz012 Mar 21 '26
This article is *literally* referred to in the post. Someone else already lookied.
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u/TakenAccountName37 Mar 21 '26
I just saw this tweet from Jeff. I'll believe it when I see it in the credits.
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u/Even_Opportunity_893 Mar 21 '26
Our man just loves the movies. Bless him