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Welcome to
mag-no'li-a News. We do not claim to be insider, just fans
of Paul Thomas Anderson. All of the news listed here
will be from various sources, mainly from the internet.
magnolia
official site, September 10, 1999
Magnolia 30
second trailer introduced
The official mag-no'lia
site has added the new trailer for the movie. The trailer
includes a MPAA rating of R for the movie. You can view the
trailer by clicking this link.
Magnolia to be
trimmed and moved up???
THE GOOD:
Jeff Wells got some early poop on Paul Thomas Anderson's
Magnolia and thus broke the code of silence around the
picture. Jeff's concerns about the over-three-hour running time
led to an exchange between myself and New Line's Michael DeLuca
on Magnolia, with DeLuca kindly laying out the studio's
position on how they handle a three-hour movie: "Here's the
straight scoop: There's no pressure on Paul to cut. I don't
pressure world class filmmakers. I make suggestions, Bob Shaye
makes suggestions, but that's it. I flipped over the film, and all
I told Paul was that if he could, he should try to keep the
running time requirement for four shows a day as opposed to three
in his mind while trimming. He agreed and he's been trimming on
his own these past four weeks. I let Paul have his own process,
and he often screens changes for me.
We totally knew what the film was going to be
when we read the script. No surprises. I thought we'd end up with
a three and a half hour movie and he's actually going to end up
much shorter. We never thought that the commercial chances for Magnolia
would be determined by running time. It's either going to connect
as the greatest film ever made before the ending of a millennium,
or it won't, but a half hour will not make the difference. With
this kind of movie, it's the total experience of the film itself
that sells the film. All we told Paul was cut the best movie you
can."
In Jeff's conversation with Paul Thomas
Anderson, a potential Thanksgiving release on as many as 1800
screens was brought up. New Line got killed in platform release
for the underrated and underseen Living Out Loud last year,
so one more exchange on the release, so I felt compelled to ask if
they were going wider to avoid the past. Apparently not. DeLuca on
distribution: "We're actually trying to avoid December
competition (Ripley, The Green Mile, etc). There's like
four three hour movies in December. So I want to either be the
first or the last (a January release with a qualifying run, like
we did Wag the Dog). We were always going wider than 800,
[it was] just a matter of when."
And I guess it still is. There aren't many
production chiefs in Hollywood who surf the Web, much less indulge
those of us who work out here. Mike DeLuca is a rare bird
in that way and in many others. The most remarkable one is that I
don't think he's ever misled me, on or off the record. Could being
honest be the future of Hollywood? Let's see. In my experience,
Fox and New Line are the most willingly informative and most
direct of the studios. And they do pretty well. Hmmmm...Like Cosmo
suggested in Sneakers, does the power to create destruction
(a big Web issue) come from "Too many secrets?" Hmmmm...
The Pitch:
During one day in the San Fernando
Valley, the lives of several disparate people (including Julianne
Moore, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and John C.
Reilly) intersect, with tragicomic results.
The Big Picture:
Writer-director Paul Thomas
Anderson (Boogie Nights) denies the rumor that the script for his
$30 million-plus follow-up runs a staggering 160 pages.
"No," he says with a laugh. "It's longer." He
refuses to say much else about it, however. "I feel lately as
if I know everything about a movie before I see it, " he
says, "and I really want the audience to discover this
purely." Some of the Nights cast have returned, plus one
rather prominent addition: Tom Cruise, in an un-billed role. And
(get this) it was Cruise who approached Anderson. "It's like
getting the phone call from the President of the United States,
" Anderson says. "If he hadn't called, I just would have
assumed he wasn't gettable for me." But if the first days of
filming seemed like a class reunion, that feeling didn't last.
"Julianne was the first one to shoot - she kind of got the
baseball bat in the face," Anderson says, figuratively
speaking. "It was emotionally arduous," Moore
confirms, "Paul pushed me really hard - much harder than
someone I didn't know would have." Macy, who plays a former
quiz-show whiz kid obsessed with a male bartender, endured pain of
a more physical nature. "Paul had an idea for a gag where I
leave the keys on my belt chain in the door and walk away, and
it's supposed to knock me ass-over-teakettle," Macy says.
"He made me do it 35 times . My whole hip was black and blue
by the end of the night." Perhaps Anderson was getting even.
Earlier, when the director was discussing how one scene should be
shot, Macy observed that the proposed angle was unflattering to
him. "Oh, here it starts," Anderson roared. "One
fucking nomination and suddenly... You're not a leading man;
you're a character actor." Macy gibed back: "And you're
a cult director who doesn't know when to stop writing."
Magnolia: Tom
Cruise was such a fan of writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie
Nights, he asked to be included in this cast, with
Julianne Moore, William H. Macy and John C. Reilly. The film
is also set in California's San Fernando Valley, but that's all
you'll get from the secretive Anderson. Psst:
Everybody who thinks Cruise has only a cameo is in for a
surprise. His role, as a motivational speaker involved in
hypnotism and sex, is a major one - and from reports, Oscar
worthy.
AICN
- August 22, 1999
Tyler Durden looks at Paul Anderson's
MAGNOLIA
Hey folks, Harry here and this here is a review of MAGNOLIA, the follow
up project from the director of BOOGIE NIGHTS. Paul Anderson is currently
on a roll, two good films in a row and this one... well this one sounds
like it's a blast... So we'll just have to wait and see how it fairs after
all is said and done. This screening took place quite a whiles back down
in Australia. I had some cursory "It's great" "This movie
soooo fucking rocks" pieces of email, but nothing that really
resembled a review... so here ya go.... Tyler Durden, will you please do
the honors...
Hey Harry -
first time writer so I've got to do the usual first time stuff, tell
you your column's cool.
the reason I'm writing is that last week I got to see MAGNOLIA, the new
one by Paul Thomas Anderson. There was maybe three hundred of us, and PTA
was there with his editor Dillon/Dylan (?). He's frighteningly young, a
kind of geeky Tarantino-type, made a short speech about this being a rough
cut, and warning us that it's long (he wasn't kidding). It runs something
over three hours, but Harry I've got to say I could have watched it quite
happily for three more.
I should start off by saying I had a pretty good time at Hard Eight and
thought Boogie Nights rocked. But this is a serious leap forward. Most of
the cast of those films come back for more - William Macy, Philip Seymoor
Hoffman, John C Reilly, Julianne Moore, Philip Baker Hall (I think that's
his name). And the plot is a kind of Short Cutsy freewheel round LA,
dipping in on the lives of the many different characters. And Harry I got
to tell ya it's fucking fantastic. The different stories connect in deeply
weird but totally cool ways, I don't wanna spoil the big ending but it's a
kind of biblical plague type deal that they all go through. It's just an
amazing script.
And man o man, the acting. This is just the best group acting I've
maybe ever seen. Reilly is brilliant - Oscar time no doubt. There's a
young woman in it whose name I don't know (this cut didn't have credits
on) plays his junkie girlfriend, and she is gonna be a HUGE star. Jason
Robards who's been my hero for years has this ten minute (no shit) death
bed speech had me in tears. Philip baker Hall is also brilliant. Just
everyone is absolutely superb, even - and this is a serious shocker - Tom
Cruise. He's doing a small part and while I'm not his biggest fan I've got
to say that this is the best you've ever seen him by far, he just goes all
the way. I didn't know he was in it, and the first time you see him is
just hysterical.
Yeah, it's very very long, and that's gonna make it tough to sell, but
there's not many films nowadays take you into a world that's different and
recognisable at the same time, and this one does it. As soon as I could
talk I went over and shook Anderson's hand afterwards, told him I'd loved
it and asked him how much he was planning to cut. He seemed pleased by how
it went, said maybe ten minutes only. Which makes him brave but having
seen this he certainly ain't stupid.
So that's it harry. I loved this film, think when it's finished it's
gonna be a stone classic. Hope you agree.
Tyler Durden
Entertainment Weekly - August 20, 1999
Magnolia
starring William H. MACY, Julianne MOORE,
Philip Baker HALL, John C. REILLY, Jason ROBARDS, Felicity HUFFMAN, Tom
CRUISE
directed by Paul Thomas ANDERSON
what's the big deal? The much-anticipated
follow-up to Anderson's critically hailed ''Boogie Nights'' -- the movie
that made Marky Mark a big deal (at least in its last scene).
release date Dec. 25 ''I'm
going to get final cut once in my career, so I might as well abuse it to
the hilt,'' says the 29-year-old director. Exactly how he'll abuse it
isn't entirely clear, though we do know, based on ''Boogie Nights,'' that
Anderson isn't afraid of complicated story lines or sprawling running
times. Nor does he shy away from risqué subject matter. But Anderson, who
also wrote the script, is keeping ''Magnolia"'s plot details double top
secret.
This much we do know: The film is set in modern-day San
Fernando Valley, takes place over the course of 24 hours (except for a
15-minute prelude set at the turn of the century, which Anderson filmed
using an old-fashioned hand-crank Lumiere camera), and features a brief
cameo by Tom Cruise.
''It's about family relations, how they need to be
mended -- or broken, depending on your point of view,'' is all Anderson
will (cryptically) reveal. Hall (who'll also appear in ''The Talented Mr.
Ripley'') isn't much help either: ''It's a multiple-story format, with
about five different plotlines running through it,'' he says. ''It's a
little like Robert Altman's 'Short Cuts'... but that's really all I can
say about it.'' BUZZ
FACTOR: 7
AICN– August 4, 1999
The Trailer Man Looks At the Trailer For Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia
Magnolia (New Line) The quasi-darling of "hot directors", Paul Thomas Anderson, delivers what has to be a very hands-on teaser of his new film
mag-no'li-a. Thanks "p.t." (you'll see what I mean at end of teaser) for the hooked on phonics spelling.... save for those conceits, this trailer does exactly what it is suppose to do: it piques your interest...memorably. Tells you it's from the director/writer of Boogie Nights and then with a jazzy percussive beat camera shot tracks down a hallway of a run down apartment building, through a door where a noxious old woman stands with a rifle ready to fire at her (presumably) husband, missing, shooting out window behind him simultaneous to someone
plummeting head first from a floor above in view through the same window (wow what was that?!) STOP forgot about the voiceover that waxes rhapsodic about "stories of coincidence and chance and intersections and strange things"...and now I am paraphrasing (sorry, it wasn't like I had a recorder)..."if it wasn't in a movie I
wouldn't believe it"...and then immediately, spectacular edits of the actors introducing their characters by name: a kid, somebody, then wait! TOM CRUISE, then more kids, more
familiar faces, wait! William Macy yes!, then oh that's what's her name , then another face or two then oh Julianne Moore, yes twice! and then a funny reptilian......intro a magnolia blossom and boom, over, done, your hooked. Uhhh then
december 99 (wince). Teaser trailers........they are an art unto themselves...short, don't give out too much at all, WHICH IS GOOD SINCE WE
AREN'T ALL LEMMINGS......and create a variety of perceptions which turns to buzz which is its purpose in life. Very cool.
"I received an e-mail today letting me know that a title used for this film during its shooting was
The Rose."
AICN
– July 13, 1999
Moriarty’s Rumblings From the Lab #4
New Line and Paul Thomas "not directing DEATH RACE 3000" Anderson have also come up with an ingenious way to start the ride early, and it all hinges on the top secret character Tom Cruise is playing in the top secret film. There's a phone number in the film that is pivotal in the life of Frank
T.J. Mackey, Cruise's character. In a move that distinguishes MAGNOLIA from pretty much every film that you've ever seen, it's a real phone number -- no "555" in sight. As we get closer to the release of the film, you'll be able to call that number and get hipped to the words and wisdom of Mackey. "Respect the cock and tame the cunt," indeed.
From this fairly secretive film, comes this
report from a friend of a fan of the
site:
A good friend of mine worked as an (occupation excised) for a few days on the film. The only star he worked with, however, was William H. Macy. The scene he said they were working on sounded totally bizarre. It entailed a rainstorm where it was raining. . . .frogs. That's right, frogs. Don't ask me. He didn't even know why. He said people were above absolutely pelting below with frogs. And for all you animal activists out there: no, of course the frogs weren't real! (Thanks go out to the anonymous source of this location scoop!)
AICN
- March 11, 1999
Moriarty’s ShowWest Reports
A hush fell over the crowd as the next trailer began. It's very hard to explain, and there was both so much and so little to absorb. There were four simple images lined up across the screen, simple drawings of items like leaves and frogs, that kept changing, dissolving from one to the next, as a voice-over talked about the random nature of life, about the way people meet. "And so it goes, and so it goes, and so it goes." An incredible cast list flashed by followed by a single title -- MAGNOLIA. "We may be through with the past," the voice-over concludes, "but the past ain't through with us." Even without a frame of footage, this was an astonishing trailer. Paul Thomas Anderson is a big Altman fan, and this looks like his bid to direct a SHORT
CUTS.
AICN
- January 29, 1999
Tiny Rumor on Paul Thomas Anderson’s MAGNOLIA
Alrighty you out there. You are to take this one as complete RUMOR stuff. I know
no one that has taken a glimpse of this script, though I know many that are dying to, including myself. Paul Thomas Anderson is simply one of the many cool people in film we have to keep our eyes on. Right now, he’s got a lot of fans that are dying to hear any details on his projects, and well.... this is a tiny teensy bitsy rumored detail. If you know the scoop, let me know,
ok? Greetings, oh great geek. Just wanted to pass on a small bit on info I recently got about Paul Thomas Anderson's highly anticipated MAGNOLIA. A friend of mine got a look at the script and said that the pages he read involved undercover policeman. He'd also heard that Tom Cruise will play a sleazy criminal, and that it's shooting in the San Fernando Valley. Hope you can use that---I know it's really sketchy, and may not be correct--my friend has a notoriously bad memory--but info on this project is SO hard to come by....As they say in this part of the world, it's locked up tighter then a crab's behind.
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