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.