May 5, 2000

Archived update from Cigarettes & Coffee, run by Greg Mariotti & CJ Wallis from 1999-2005

Those rumor mongers over at Ain't It Cool News are reporting that PTA may direct The Underworld based on Don DeLillo's book. Scott Rudin is producing. (As with most rumors, this probably does not have much validity. PTA has said numerous times that he does not want to direct something that he did not write at this time. I will try to get more information on this in the near future.)

Readers have been asking for more information about the novel & potential future PTA project "A Conspiracy of Paper", so here is a plot summary: (Thanks to Phil!) 

"Benjamin Weaver is an outsider in eighteenth-century London: a Jew among Christians; a ruffian among aristocrats; a retired pugilist who, hired by London's gentry, travels through the criminal underworld in pursuit of debtors and thieves." "In A Conspiracy of Paper, Weaver investigates a crime of the most personal sort: the mysterious death of his estranged father, a notorious stockjobber. To find the answers, Weaver must contend with a desperate prostitute who knows too much about his past, relatives who remind him of his alienation from the Jewish faith, and a cabal of powerful men in the world of British finance who have hidden their business dealings behind an intricate web of deception and violence. Relying on brains and brawn, Weaver uncovers the beginnings of a strange new economic order based on stock speculation - a way of life that poses great risk for investors but real danger for Weaver and his family. 

An interesting article about the increase of movie running times & the effect on their Box Office from the Irish Times is available here. Here are the quotes from New Line & PTA:

Robert Friedman of New Line Cinema, which financed Magnolia and released it in the US, says, "The problem for us, quite simply, was not only having a three hour film, but also having a film that's not easily defined in a single line. The challenge was to get people in to see the movie."

Paul Thomas Anderson, the film's young director, comments: "Making a movie of this length does set you up for criticism. It's slightly arrogant and a little bold to require three hours of someone's life to tell a story. It means you really have to deliver. Like, if I hear a movie I'm going to see is three hours, I get a little uneasy."