January 22, 2002

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

A few mentions of Project X4 have surfaced in the past week. The Daily Texan lists the film as the #3 most anticipated film for 2002. Here's what they said (Thanks William!):

# 3 - P.T. Anderson Project

Of all the projects kept under wraps, none have done a better job of doing so than Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to Magnolia. But even if Anderson kept an online production journal of the shoot, describing every detail, the curiosity surrounding it would remain unfettered. With Anderson's choices for leading man being Adam Sandler (that's not a misprint) and Emily Watson for leading lady, the level of mystery about the film, which is supposedly a romantic comedy, has only heightened. For months, the film has had online film circles guessing about both the titles (everything from Punch Drunk Love to Knuckle Sandwich) and the plot. What is known, however, is that part of the film will take place in Hawaii, where Anderson took his cast and crew last January. Also, Anderson film regulars Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Luis Guzman have both taken supporting roles in the film. Anderson was also quoted recently that the film will be Adam Sandler's "$25 million arthouse movie," which could have easily been said by Quentin Tarantino after the two met on the set of Sandler's Little Nicky and struck up a friendship. 

Tarantino turned around and wrote a part for Sandler in his upcoming war film, Glorious Bastards. Unfortunately for Tarantino, Anderson was quicker to sign Sandler, who has a busy 2002 ahead of him with two other films, including Mr. Deeds, a loosely based remake of the Frank Capra classic, and 8 Crazy Nights, an animated film about the joys of celebrating Hanukkah. Regardless of Sandler's other projects, the untitled P.T. Anderson project should receive the most ink come awards time, when the film is suspected to be released.

UK film magazine Empire also high expectations for Project X4 in their 2002 film preview. They are still showing the name as Punchdrunk Knuckle Love & their plot synopsis isn't right, but oh well.

Rocky Horror Magnolia? Here's an amusing story from site reader (& assistant manager of the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles) Marc Edward Heuck.

We show The Rocky Horror Picture Show Saturday night. We have a great house cast called Sins o' the Flesh that perform the live portion of the experience; they've won awards all over and should be considered the best Rocky cast in America. Anyhow, last Saturday, Jan. 12th, the cast did a "90's night" show, in which instead of dressing like Rocky characters--Brad, Frankie, etc.--they dressed as '90's icons. For example, "Brad" was Adam Sandler, "Frank 'n' Furter" was Ace Ventura, "Janet" was SNL character Mary Catherine Gallagher (Superstar), you get the idea. Also, at strategic points in the movie, we would cut out from the movie audio and drop in some 90's related audio for comic effect. For example, our "Eddie" came dressed as Cartman from South Park, and after the first verse of "Hot Patootie," we went out of that song and into "Kyle's Mom is a Bitch."

Anyhow, for the final scene of the movie before end credits, where the "Super Heroes" song number would be as Brad, Janet, and Dr. Scott crawl in the ruins of Frank 'n' Furter's castle, we dropped in Aimee Mann's "Wise Up," and as the performers lip-synched the song on stage, we proceeded to pelt the audience with tiny rubber frogs. I personally got on top of what would be the roof of the concession stand (the portion recessed into the theatre auditorium) and flung nearly 22 dozen of them into the puzzled crowd. Most people in the movie theatre, of course, had never seen Magnolia, so they were left wondering what the hell this was all about. In fact, most of the cast had never seen the film either, but just liked the bizarre idea of dropping frogs on the audience. The few people in attendance who had seen the film, though, loved it.

January 18-21, 2002

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

UK's Hotdog Magazine has an interview with Mark Wahlberg in their January 2002 issue. He talks a bit about a possible upcoming musical project with PTA as well as the Sandler/PTA project. Thanks to site reader Lianne for sending this in. Here's the excerpt:

Hotdog - Jordan Riefe: What about a Musical?

MW: Actually, me and Paul Thomas Anderson have discussed it at length. Just a matter of finding the right thing. He's actually writing one, which is going to be crazy, a Paul Thomas Anderson musical. A lot of cocaine.

Hotdog: This isn't his next film, the Adam Sandler one?

MW: No, this is a kind of like a weird action drama thing he wrote. Kind of like the Chest and Brock movie, the characters we came up with in Boogie Nights, but a real, full-blown action feature with these guys running around crazy.

On a related note, Variety ran an article on PTA's current home, Joe Roth's Revolution Studios & they are reporting a Fall 2002 release for Project X4. We'll just have to wait & see. You can read the whole story here.

Lastly, here's an extremely well researched & fascinating analysis of Magnolia by site reader Natalie McDonald from Philadelphia, PA. Check it out here.

January 14-17, 2002

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

My condolences to the family & friends of filmmaker Ted Demme, who died of on Sunday. Demme was rushed to the emergency room of UCLA Medical Center in Santa Monica when he collapsed after playing in a celebrity basketball game for the NBA Entertainment League at the private Crossroads School. The Los Angeles Coroner's office says the cause of death is not yet known and an autopsy will be conducted. Demme was 38.

Ricky Jay is a busy man. He'll be speaking at the Getty Center in Los Angeles this Friday, January 18th at 7:30 p.m. I hear tickets are sold out, but you can call 310-440-7300. Here's the details on the event: 

Deceptive Practices: A Conversation with Ricky Jay - Sleight-of-hand artist, collector, and magic historian Ricky Jay, in conversation with New Yorker writer Lawrence Weschler, discusses his new book Jay's Journal of Anomalies and his relationship with the Devices of Wonder exhibition.

In TV news, IFC continues to air the Independent Focus with PTA. Also, Starz! is showing Magnolia a few times this month. You can check out the dates & times here.

If you haven't picked up Jon Brion's latest CD, "Meaningless", now is a great time. It's showing up on many year end Top 10 lists (including Entertainment Weekly). 

January 7-13, 2002

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

I'm very pleased to present a new feature entitled "PTA Influences". As we look at the careers of directors who have inspired Paul. These inspirations can seen in a number of ways: dialogue, tone, camera moves, etc. This is the brainchild of site reader Bob Ellis, so I'm sure he'd love your feedback as well. We'll start with Robert Altman who's receiving a lot of critical attention with his new film "Gosford Park". 

Since we're talking about Altman, here's an in-depth interview with the director from the USA Today. They also list their favorite & most under-appreciated films here.

Aimee Mann & Michael  Penn will be performing the Beatles' song "Two of Us" from the Sean Penn film "I Am Sam" on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, January 21st.

January 1-6, 2002

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

I wanted to wish Paul a Happy 32nd Birthday this week! As you know, PTA was born on January 1, 1970 in Studio City, CA. Here's to a healthy & happy 2002.

Remember that Ricky Jay appearance in San Francisco in early December? Here's a recap of the event from site reader Michael Alessandro:

Just a note to let you know I saw Ricky Jay last night, interviewed by Michael Chabon and it was a great evening. Michael seemed to truly be a Ricky Jay aficionado and fan, they talked much about Jays Journal of Anomalies (Ricky's new book - a compilation of his short magazines, which is fabulous!) and some of his film work.

At the end of the chat, before questions from the audience Ricky Jay consented to perform a poem written for him by Shel Silverstein before he passed, it's to be part of his new show. It was truly delightful, a story of a hustler (Jay) challenged to an honest game of cards in a room with no windows, and a door locked from the outside, and a table of glass, the men wear no rings, no items in which to mark the cards, so he says yes to this "honest" game, and when he wins through skill his challenger pulls a knife at which Ricky throws a card twenty feet across the heads of the audience hitting the balconies edge and "disarms" assailant, at which the man says he'll use his bear hands and Ricky Jay then shoots another card across the opposite wall with equal force "cutting the hand" from the man, at which the man pulls a gun and Ricky sends a card right between his eyes.

It was a wonderful cap to the evening, and a great poem. Ricky Jay took some questions from the audience, was generous in his responses and then signed books after. I had him sign my worn copy of "Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women" and then chatted with him for a few moments about the film I directed "Smoke & Mirrors" which he and PT were a great inspiration for. He was very nice, and I was grateful for this time. (Not to slight Chabon - who gave a wonderful interview and was also a pleasant guy)

M. Night Shyamalan mentions how much he loves Boogie Nights in an interview that was conducted by Creative Screenwriting Magazine with the writer/director of the "Sixth Sense" You can check it out here. (Thanks Kurt!)

I will return with a new site feature entitled "PTA Influences" by site reader Bob Ellis. Stay tuned...

December 21-25, 2001

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

There's plenty of discussion about Hard Eight in an article about Reno & its place in movies. You can check out here.

ESPN.com writer Bill Simmons is at it again. He talks about his love of Boogie Nights & DVD in his latest column. Check it out here. (Thanks Ian, Chas!)

I've received multiple emails regarding the similarity of a scene from Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's 11 & the casino scene during the prologue of Magnolia. Elliott Gould's flashback sequence in Ocean's 11 is quite similar right down to the freeze frame of a guy getting smacked in the face. It could be homage (to PTA or other directors), since PTA has clearly been influenced by the likes of Demme, Ophuls & Scorsese.

December 14-19, 2001

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

As you've probably noticed, things have been extremely quiet, but I'm pleased to share some exciting news today. Yep, that's a behind the scenes still from the PTA/Adam Sandler film (courtesy of the Adam's official site). You'll notice that PTA's hair is quite short which means he probably continued his ritual of shaving his head whenever he starts work on a new film. Oh yeah, one more small thing. I've heard from PTA's camp that Punchdrunk Knuckle Love will not be the name of film. Not sure what happened, but I should be talking to Paul soon & I hope to find out.

Attn Canadian Readers: Showcase (sort of the Canadian HBO) is running a contest for people to vote for what movie they want played on New Years. Hard Eight, Exotica Another Day In Paradise, The Dreamlife of Angels & Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss are the nominees. You can vote at their official site.

December 3-6, 2001

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

Adam Sandler is a busy man. According to Variety, his next film may be Revolution Studios' Anger Management, playing a timid businessman who is sentenced to an anger management program where he finds himself tutored by an ultra-aggressive psycho. Possible co-stars include Jack Nicholson, though no offers have been made.

In addition to the upcoming PTA film, Punchdrunk Knuckle Love, Sandler has also completed work on Deeds, the Sony/Columbia Tri Star picture inspired by Mr. Deeds Comes to Town co-starring Winona Ryder. Other possible Sandler projects include the romantic comedy Fifty First Kisses with Julia Roberts & Scared Guys, a Dean Parisot-directed comedy about a man with phobias who attempts to leave his apartment for the first time in years to stop a contract killing.

Michael Chabon will be interviewing Ricky Jay in this Thursday, December 6th in San Francisco at the Herbst Theatre. Definitely worth checking out if you live in the Bay Area. You can call (415) 392-4400 for more information. (Thanks John!)

As many of you reported, Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings) was among the guests on the premiere episode of MTV's Movie House. Hard Eight was mentioned as one of his favorite films during a trip into a video store. He even explained that the film's original title was Sydney. The PTA fan base continues to grow...

Director Joel Schumacher briefly mentions Boogie Nights, referring to the opening tracking shot as "great" during his commentary track for the St. Elmo's Fire DVD. (Thanks Jeff!)

Interview: "Catchin' Up With PTA"

Written By Cigarettes & Red Vines
November 2nd, 2000


Tell me about the rumors that you did a rewrite on Universal’s Charade remake for Jonathan Demme?

[Scoffs] No. Not even close [Laughs]. No, Jonathan & I just have a relationship of sending things to each other. So, he’ll send me draft of Charade & I’ll say boy, this is good, this is bad, you should try & fix this & look at that.

So, your opinion basically?

Yeah. Just swapping ideas & stuff. I did not even remotely touch a draft. & Jonathan is going to eventually do Charade. A year & half from now or something like that.