Happy New Year

There Will Be Blood

We are counting down the days until we can see the sprawling epic of family, faith, power and oil, There Will Be Blood is set on the incendiary frontier of California's turn-of-the-century petroleum boom. The story chronicles the life and times of one Daniel Plainview played by Daniel Day-Lewis, who transforms himself from a down-and-out silver miner raising a son on his own into a self-made oil tycoon.When Plainview gets a mysterious tip-off that there's a little town out West where an ocean of oil is oozing out of the ground, he heads with his son, H.W., to take their chances in dust-worn Little Boston. In this hardscrabble town, where the main excitement centers around the holy rolling church of charismatic preacher Eli Sunday, brilliantly brought to life by actor Paul Dano, Plainview and H.W. make their lucky strike. But even as the well raises all of their fortunes, nothing will remain the same as conflicts escalate and every human value - love, hope, community, belief, ambition and even the bond between father and son - is imperiled by corruption, deception and the flow of oil.

There Will Be Blood is the fifth film from writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson. Anderson's screenplay is loosely based upon the classic, 1920s muck-raking novel Oil! by Upton Sinclair. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the film’s score was composed by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood.

Paul Thomas Anderson has had an inspired career as a filmmaker so far. Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punchdrunk Love have made Anderson a critical darling. He adds to his brilliant portfolio with his best film yet. There Will Be Blood -- a parable of greed and treachery, There Will Be Blood is mesmerizing.

What inspired you to make a film based on the Upton Sinclair novel, "Oil?"

Paul Thomas Anderson: The inspiration from the movie comes first and foremost from the book. I had been trying to write something, anything, just to get something written. I had a story that wasn't really working that was about fighting families. It didn't really have anything. It just had that premise. When I read the book there were so many ready-made scenes, and the great venue of the oil fields. Those were kind of the obvious things that seemed worth making a film about. The desire to work with Daniel [Day-Lewis], once that presented itself as a possibility, it certainly drove the engine for me to write it and finish it and get it to him.

The score is really interesting. How did you get Jonny Greenwood to score the film?

Paul Thomas Anderson: It sort of begins and ends with Jonny Greenwood. I suppose the good idea that I had was to ask him to do it. He had a couple pieces that existed before that he'd written for orchestra. He's better known for his day job. He's in a band called Radiohead. He has written a few orchestral pieces that I heard and thought were terrific. I had known him for a few years and asked him to do it, and showed him the film. He said 'OK, great.' I gave him a copy of the movie, and about three weeks later he came back with two hours of music. I have no idea how or when he did it, but he did it. It's kind of amazing. I can't say that I did any real guiding or had any real contribution to it. I just took what he gave us and found the right places for it. A couple of things that he'd written on piano that we then took to an orchestra, a couple things that he'd written for string quartet that just went straight into the film. We did that over the course of a couple months. It was a great experience working with him.

Radcliffe Signs on for Journey

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has landed a role as a British war photographer whose work has been widely acclaimed since his tragic death. The film, Journey, will see Radcliffe play Dan Eldon, a 22-year-old who was among four journalists stoned to death by a mob in Mogadishu in July 1993. Eldon left behind 17 journals, thousands of pictures and a legacy that has won admirers including Madonna and Julia Roberts.In 1992, he went to Somalia on assignment for Reuters. He witnessed American and UN troops launch 'Operation Restore Hope', first with a sense of relief, then growing frustration, and his pictures helped draw international attention to the developing crisis. Eldon's mother, Kathy, says that she has rejected numerous bids for film rights to the story, and met but turned down leading actors including Orlando Bloom, Heath Ledger, Ryan Phillippe and Joaquin Phoenix, all of whom were eager to play the part. But then she sat down with 18-year-old Radcliffe and his parents at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles.

Daniel just wrapped filming on his first role in a TV drama – he will play Jack, son of British author Rudyard Kipling, in the Ecosse Films production My Boy Jack. The story recounts how Kipling used his influence to get his 17-year-old son an officer's commission in the British army during WWI despite Jack's poor eyesight. Jack never returned from the French trenches, and Kipling and his wife spent years looking for his body."For many people my age, the First World War is just a topic in a history book," Radcliffe said. "But I've always been fascinated by the subject and think it's as relevant today as it ever was, with young men still sacrificing their lives in the name of war."The ITV television-movie is set to air next fall on flagship web ITV1.

Director Guillermo Del Toro has revealed that he has "always been" interested in directing a new version of Frankenstein, and that he is hard at work doing pre-production. Due to the WGA strike, he is unable to work on a script, but he is currently creating illustrations and images that he hopes to use to create the world of the classic monster and his creator, Victor Frankenstein."I started doing some notes before the strike," Del Toro states, "I can only draw now."Del Toro is known for his work on Hellboy and Pans Labyrith.

MERRY CHRISTMAS