March 15, 2000

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

I hope you all went out yesterday & picked up the incredible new Magnolia score by Jon Brion. It's great to see this finally released. There's a nice introduction/liner notes by PTA & after hearing this, it just reinforces my original thoughts of how the hell this did not get nominated by the Academy. 

PTA & Tom Cruise were among the nominees who attended the annual Oscar luncheon on Monday in Los Angeles as we inch closer to the show on March 26. Here's a picture from the event:

Today I added a piece from Esquire Magazine entitled "The Next Scorsese". Although it's ludicrous to make comparisons, it's fun to see who some of the top film critics selected. There is also an online poll on their site where you can cast your vote. Currently PTA resides in 2nd place behind Wes Anderson.

PTA is also featured prominently in the USA Today Life Section cover story on Oscar nominated writers who direct. I have included the article below. 

Finally, Aimee Mann's appearance on Saturday Night Live has been pushed back to a later date & the latest Magnolia Box Office numbers are posted as the number of screens in the U.S. is down to 56. 

Interview: "Director Anderson Finds He's Rising Star Of Nights"

USA Today, Written By Clifford Rothman
October ??, 1997


LOS ANGELES -- A biker is whizzing down Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. Suddenly there's a screech of brakes, and he makes a sharp U- turn back. He stops at an outdoor cafe and screams at the kid sitting at the table.

"Hey. You Paul Thomas Anderson?"

Anderson is at the cafe table, talking to a reporter. A publicist is beside him and a photographer waits to shoot his picture for one of the many stories that are breaking with Boogie Nights. This is definitely celebrity time for Anderson.

Remember the name: Paul Thomas Anderson. It's not as exotic as Quentin Tarantino. Not as highbrow as Steven Soderbergh. And it is deceptively generic for a director whose provocative work is taking the industry by storm.

Reviews by A-list critics have hailed his film with superlatives and likened his work to that of Martin Scorsese and Robert Altman. In the past two weeks, he's had lunch with Steven Spielberg (``It was like God called'') and met directors Mike Nichols, Francis Ford Coppola, Tim Burton and George Lucas. Scripts are raining on him. And his age, 27, is evoking memories of earlier wunderkinds from Soderbergh (sex, lies and videotape) to Orson Welles.

"It's very flattering,'' Anderson says matter-of-factly. "But what I really want is just to be able to make movies. And without interference."