news
news cast links pictures magnolia discussion

main

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.

Roughcut, September 1, 1999

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...

 

 

Premiere magazine, September 1999 

Fall Movie Preview

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."

 

 

Rolling Stone Magazine - September 16, 1999

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.

 

 

Upcomingmovies.com – July 17, 1999

"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.

 

 

Upcomingmovies.com – June 22, 1999

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.