Paul Thomas Anderson
(2007)
Born	Paul Thomas Anderson (1970-06-26) June 26, 1970 (age 42) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names	P.T. Anderson
Occupation	Film director, script writer, producer
Years active	1988–present
Notable work(s)	Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood
Influenced by	John Huston, Samuel Fuller, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jonathan Demme, Orson Welles, Max Ophüls, Robert Downey, Sr., David Mamet, Jacques Tati, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Howard Hawks.
Influenced	Miranda July[1]
Partner	Maya Rudolph

Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He has written and directed feature films: Hard Eight (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Punch-Drunk Love (2002), There Will Be Blood (2007), and The Master (2012). He has been nominated for five Academy Awards — There Will Be Blood for Best Achievement in Directing, Best Motion Picture of the Year, and Best Adapted Screenplay; Magnolia for Best Original Screenplay; and Boogie Nights for Best Original Screenplay.

Anderson has been hailed as being "one of the most exciting talents to come along in years"^[2] and "among the supreme talents of today."^[3] After the release of Boogie Nights and Magnolia, Anderson was praised as a wunderkind.^[4] In 2004, Anderson was ranked twenty-first on The Guardian's list of the forty best directors.^[5] In 2007, Total Film named him the twentieth greatest director of all time, while the American Film Institute regards him as "one of American film's modern masters."^[6][7] In 2011, Entertainment Weekly named him the tenth-greatest working director calling him "one of the most dynamic directors to emerge in the last twenty years."^[8]

Early life[link]

Paul Thomas Anderson was born on June 26, 1970, in Studio City, California, to Edwina (née Gough) and Ernie Anderson, who was an actor, the voice of ABC, and a Cleveland television late-night horror movie host known as "Ghoulardi" (for which Anderson later named his production company).^[9][10] Anderson grew up in the San Fernando Valley^[11] and had a troubled relationship with his mother but was close with his father who encouraged him to become a writer or director.^[12] He attended a number of schools, including Buckley in Sherman Oaks, John Thomas Dye School, Campbell Hall School, Cushing Academy and Montclair Prep.^[13]

Anderson was involved in filmmaking at a young age^[14][15] and never really had a backup plan to directing films.^[16] He started making movies on a Betamax video camera which his dad bought in 1982 when he was twelve-years-old.^[15] He later started using 8 mm film but realized that video was easier.^[14] He began writing as a teenager and at the age of seventeen he began experimenting with a Bolex 16 mm camera.^[14][17] After years of experimenting with "standard fare", he wrote and filmed his first real production as a senior in high school at Montclair Prep using money he earned cleaning cages at a pet store.^[15] The film was a thirty-minute mockumentary shot on video called The Dirk Diggler Story (1988), about a well-endowed male porn star (inspired by John Holmes, who also served as a major inspiration for Boogie Nights).^{[13][14][17][12]}

Career[link]

Early Career[link]

After two semesters as an English major at Emerson College and only two days at New York University so he could "garner ammunition" on what he called a "bad situation," Anderson began his career as a production assistant on television movies, music videos and game shows in Los Angeles and New York.^[13][18][19] With some money he won gambling, his girlfriend's credit card, and $10,000 his father set aside for college, Anderson decided to make a twenty minute film that would be his "college."^[18]

The film he made was Cigarettes and Coffee (1993), a short film made for $20,000 connecting multiple story lines with a twenty-dollar bill.^[13][17][20] The film was screened at the 1993 Sundance Festival Shorts Program and he decided to expand the film into a feature length film and was subsequently invited to the 1994 Sundance filmmakers' lab.^[13][17][20] At Sundance filmmakers' lab, Michael Caton-Jones served as his mentor and saw Anderson as someone with "talent and a fully formed creative voice but not much hands-on experience" and gave Anderson some hard and practical lessons.^[15]

[edit] 1990s: Hard Eight, Boogie Nights and Magnolia

While at the Sundance filmmakers' lab, Anderson already had a deal with Rysher Entertainment to direct his first feature.^[15] In 1996, Anderson made his first full-length feature, Sydney, which was retitled Hard Eight (1996).^[12] Upon completion of the film, Rysher re-edited it.^[15] Anderson, who still had the workprint of his original cut, submitted of the film^[17] which was accepted and screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.^[21][22] Anderson was able to get his version released but only after he retitled the film and came up with the $200,000 necessary to finish it which was contributed by himself, Gwyneth Paltrow, and John C. Reilly.^[15][17] The version that was released was Anderson's and even though Rysher did nothing to promote it,^[17] the acclaim from the film launched his career.^[13]

Anderson began working on the script for his next feature film during his troubles with Hard Eight^[15] completing the script in the summer 1995.^[17] The result was Anderson's breakout film^[23][24][25] Boogie Nights (1997), a full-length major motion based on his short The Dirk Diggler Story.^[13][17][26] The script was noticed by New Line Cinemas president, Michael De Luca, who felt "totally gaga" reading it.^[15] It was released on October 10, 1997 and was a critical and commercial success.^[12] The film revived the career of Burt Reynolds^[27][28] and provided breakout roles for Mark Wahlberg^[29] and Julianne Moore.^[30][31] The film received three Academy Award nominations, for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Burt Reynolds), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Julianne Moore), and Best Original Screenplay.^[32]

After the success of Boogie Nights, Anderson was told by New Line he could do whatever he wanted for his next film and granted Anderson creative control without hearing an idea for the film.^[12] Initially wanting to make a film that was "intimate and small-scale" as he started writing, the script "kept blossoming" and the resulting film was the ensemble piece Magnolia (1999), which tells the story of the peculiar interaction among the lives of several individuals in the San Fernando Valley, California.^[33][34] Anderson used the music of Aimee Mann as a basis and inspiration for the film^[35] commissioning her to write eight new songs.^[36] Magnolia received three Academy Award nominations, for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Tom Cruise), Best Original Song for "Save Me" by Aimee Mann and Best Original Screenplay.^[37] In an interview after the film's release Anderson was quoted as saying "... what I really feel is that Magnolia is, for better or worse, the best movie I'll ever make."^[38]

[edit] 2000s: Punch-Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood

Adam Sandler, Paul Thomas Anderson, Emily Watson, and Philip Seymour Hoffman at Cannes in 2002

After the release of Magnolia, Anderson stated that he would like to work with Adam Sandler in the future and that he was determined to make his next film 90 minutes long.^[25][33] His next feature was the comedy/romance film Punch-Drunk Love (2002), partly based on David Phillips (also called The Pudding Guy), starring Adam Sandler with Emily Watson as his love interest.^[39] The story centers around a beleaguered small-business owner (Sandler) with anger issues and seven emasculating sisters.^[39] Sandler received critical praise for his role in his first major departure from the mainstream comedies which made him a star.^[27][40] Roger Ebert wrote that "Sandler, liberated from the constraints of formula, reveals unexpected depths as an actor. Watching this film, you can imagine him in Dennis Hopper roles. He has darkness, obsession and power."^[41] At the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, the film won best director and was nominated for the Golden Palm.^[42]

Anderson's most recent film, There Will Be Blood (2007), was loosely based on the Upton Sinclair novel Oil!.^[43] The budget of the film was $25 million, and it gained $76.1 million worldwide.^[44] Anderson had previously stated that he wanted to work with Daniel Day-Lewis^[25][33] who starred in and won an Oscar for Best Leading Actor for his role.^[45] Paul Dano received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor.^[46] Anderson was nominated for Best Director from the Directors Guild of America.^[47] The film also received eight Academy Award nominations, tying with No Country For Old Men for the most nominations.^[48] Anderson received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, losing all three to the Coen Brothers for No Country For Old Men.^[45] There Will Be Blood was largely regarded as one of the greatest films of the decade, and some parties further declaring it one of the greatest American films ever made. ^[49]

Future[link]