Paul Thomas Anderson

At 53 years old, Paul Thomas Anderson has this physical status:

Career

Anderson attended Santa Monica College before enrolling and spending two semesters as an English major at Emerson College, where he was taught by David Foster Wallace, and only two days at New York University before starting his career as a production assistant on television, films, music videos, and game shows in Los Angeles and New York City. Anderson decided to make a 20-minute film that would be his "college" after feeling that the information shown to him at film school turned the entire experience into "homework or a chore."

Anderson made Cigarettes & Coffee (1993), a short film involving several story lines with a $20 bill that was made up of gambling winnings, his girlfriend's credit card, and money his father set aside for him for college. The film was shown at the 1993 Sundance Festival Shorts Program. He wanted to bring the film to a full length, and was accepted into the 1994 Sundance Feature Film Festival. Michael Caton-Jones served as Anderson's mentor. Anderson was regarded as someone with "talent and a fully developed creative voice, but not so hands-on knowledge," and he gave him some challenging and practical lessons.

Anderson had already signed a film contract with Rysher Entertainment to produce his first full-length feature, Sydney, which had been retitled Hard Eight at the Sundance Feature Film Festival. Rysher re-edited it after finishing the film. Anderson, who had already had the workprint of his original cut, submitted the film to the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where it was seen in the Uncertain Regard section. Anderson was able to get the version out, but only after he retitled the film and raised the $200,000 required to finish it. The final budget was contributed by Anderson, Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Anderson's and the film's acclaim came from his career. In the film, a senior gambler, who has taken a homeless man under his wing, meets a struggling waitress as he becomes romantically linked. In addition, it featured Philip Seymour Hoffman as an obsessive gambler, kicking off a five-film collaboration between the pair. "Movies like Hard Eight remind me of the original, touching characters the films can sometimes have," Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert wrote.

During his time with Hard Eight, Anderson worked on the script for his second feature film and finished it in 1995. The result, according to Boogie Nights, which is based on his short film The Dirk Diggler Story, is set in the Golden Age of Porn. Under his stage name, a nightclub dishwasher (Mark Wahlberg) becomes a well-known pornographic actor. Michael De Luca, the president of New Line Cinema, found the script "completely gaga" watching it. It was launched on October 10, 1997, and it was a critical and commercial success. Burt Reynolds' career was revived, and Wahlberg and Julianne Moore had breakout roles in the film. Reynolds declined to appear in Anderson's third film, Magnolia, following the film's completion. The film was nominated for three awards, including Best Supporting Actor (Reynolds), Best Supporting Actress (Moore), and Best Original Screenplay at the 70th Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor (Moore).

After the success of Boogie Nights, New Line told Anderson that he could do whatever he wanted for his next film and gave him creative freedom. Despite Anderson's insistence that he wanted to make a film that was "intimate and small," the script "kept blossoming." The resulting film, Magnolia (1999), tells the tale of several people in the San Fernando Valley's bizarre interaction. Anderson used Aimee Mann's music as a base and inspiration for the film, bribing her to write eight new songs. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor (Tom Cruise), Best Original Song for "Save Me" by Aimee Mann, and Best Original Screenplay at the 72nd Academy Awards. "I really think Magnolia is, for better or worse, the best movie I'll ever make," Anderson said after the film's debut.

Anderson said he would like to work with Adam Sandler again in the future and that his next film would be much shorter than 90 minutes. Sandler's debut in the romantic comedy-drama film Punch-Drunk Love (2002), starring Emily Watson, who was portraying his love interest. The story revolves around a beleaguered small-business owner with anger issues and seven emasculating sisters. A subplote in the film was based on David Phillips (also known as the Pudding Guy). Sandler's role in his first big departure from the mainstream comedies that had made him a star. Anderson received the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 and was nominated for the Palme d'Or.

There Will Be Blood (2007) was loosely based on Upton Sinclair's book Oil! It came as a result of a ruthless silver miner mining the Southern California oil boom in the early 20th century. The film's budget was $25 million, but it earned $76.1 million worldwide. There Will Be Blood received eight Academy Award nominations, tying for the most nominations that year, with No Country for Old Men. Anderson was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, but he lost all three to the Coen Brothers for No Country for Old Men. Daniel Day-Lewis received the award for Best Actor and Robert Elswit received the prize for Best Cinematography. Paul Dano was named Best Supporting Actor by the British Academy of Actors in BAFTA. Anderson was nominated for Best Director of the Directors Guild of America. Any reviewer would rate There Will Be Blood as one of the decade's finest films, with others naming it as one of the most impressive American films of the modern period. "The young writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson has now produced work that compares the best of Griffith and Ford's greatest achievements," The New Yorker's David Denby wrote, while Richard Schickel said it was "one of the most wholly original American films ever made." A. O. Scott and Manohla Dargis, two New York Times film critics, named it as the "Best Film of the 21st Century So Far" in 2017.

Anderson was working on a new book about a "charismatic intellectual" who started a new faith in the 1950s. Anderson's aide confirmed that the film had been in Anderson's head for about 12 years. The Master was first unveiled in North America on September 14, 2012, earning critical acclaim. The film follows an alcoholic World War II soldier who meets the leader of a religious movement called "The Cause." Despite the fact that the film makes no mention of the movement, it has "long been widely assumed to be based on Scientology." The film received three nominations at the 85th Academy Awards, including for Joaquin Phoenix for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman for Best Leading Actor, and Amy Adams for Best Supporting Actress.

In May, Thomas Pynchon's 2009 book Inherent Vice began in May and ended in August 2013. Anderson appeared in the film for the first time that Pynchon allowed his work to be adapted for film, and he met with Phoenix for the second time. Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Jena Malone, Martin Short, Benicio Del Toro, Katherine Waterston, and Josh Brolin are among the supporting cast members. Following its debut in December 2014, the film received two awards at the 87th Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Costume Design.

Jonny Greenwood, composer and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, Radiohead engineer Nigel Godrich, Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, and a group of Indian musicians produced Junun, a 2015 documentary about the creation of the album by composer and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, producer and radiohead producer Shye Ben Tzur. The bulk of the performances were recorded at Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan, which dates back to the 15th century. At the 2015 New York Film Festival, Junun premiered.

Phantom Thread, Anderson's eighth feature film set in the London fashion industry in 1954, was released in late 2017. After appearing in his penultimate film Lincoln, Day-Lewis starred in his last film role to date. Lesley Manville, Vicky Krieps, and Richard Graham appear in the film as well. Focus Features distributed the film in the United States, with Universal handling international distribution. Principal photography began in January 2017. Elswit was absent during filming, and no official credit was given to him. Elswit said on February 16, 2019 that he would not be collaborating with Anderson on his next films. At the 90th Academy Awards, the film received six nominations, one for Best Costume Design.

Focus Features would produce his next film on December 18, 2019. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer dissolved Focus Film as the film's production company on July 17, 2020. The film takes place in the 1970s and is about a young boy from high school, with production beginning in August 2020. Licorice Pizza's principal photography was complete by November 2020, with post-production kicking in. The film was scheduled for a limited release on November 26, 2021, and a wide release on December 25. Licorice Pizza received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.

Anderson produced and directed a segment for Saturday Night Live with Ben Affleck called "SNL FANatic" in 2000, based on the MTV series FANatic. Altman, a standby director during Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion's 2005 filming for insurance purposes, as Altman was 80 years old at the time. Anderson co-wrote and directed a 70-minute play at the Largo Theatre in 2008, starring Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen and Fred Armisen. Jon Brion's live score provided the Largo Theatre.

Fiona Apple, Radiohead, Haim, Joanna Newsom, Aimee Mann, Jon Brion, and Michael Penn have all produced music videos for artists, including Fiona Apple, Radiohead, Haim, Joanna Newsom, Jon Brion, and Michael Penn. In 2017, Anderson made a short film for Haim starring three musical appearances from the band. Anderson produced Anima, starring singer Thom Yorke and featuring music from Yorke's Anima album. On June 26, it was shown in select IMAX theaters and then announced on Netflix on June 27.

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