Cooper Hoffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman's Son, Is The Star Of Paul Thomas Anderson's New Movie

Here's a story that might make you emotional: Cooper Hoffman, son of the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman, is the lead in Paul Thomas Anderson's new movie. The elder Hoffman and Anderson made several films together, so there's something bittersweet about him now working with Hoffman's son. Also in the film: Alana Haim, of the band HAIM – for whom Anderson has directed several videos.

Some set pics were making the rounds over the weekend suggesting that Cooper Hoffman, the son of late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, was appearing in Paul Thomas Anderson's new movie, a mysterious project set in the 1970s. Now, we have confirmation, via THR. Per their report, Hoffman is "playing the child actor at the center of the movie, which involves multiple storylines and is set in the San Fernando Valley."

Bradley Cooper and Benny Safdie are also in the film. We're not quite sure who Cooper is playing, but Safdie's character is inspired by L.A. City Council member Joel Wachs, who was a "closeted gay man until he was preparing to run for mayor in 1999 at the age of sixty," according to the New York Times. This will be Cooper Hoffman's feature debut, and he won't be alone there – Alana Haim, of the band HAIM, is also making her feature debut right alongside him. Plotwise, we know the movie follows "multiple storylines centering around a kid actor attending high school in the Valley," which makes it sound akin to Anderson's Boogie Nights and Magnolia.

Anderson and Philip Seymour Hoffman had a great working relationship together, with Hoffman appearing in Anderson's films Hard Eight (aka Sydney), Boogie NightsMagnoliaPunch-Drunk Love, and The Master. Hoffman died in 2014, and the film world has been severely lacking ever since. "When I saw him for the first time in Scent of a Woman, I just knew what true love was," Anderson said in an interview with Marc Maron. "I knew what love-at-first-sight was. It was the strangest feeling, sitting in a movie theater and thinking, 'He's for me and I'm for him.'" Excuse me, I have to go cry a little now.