Magnolia: The Shooting Script
- ISBN13: 9781557044068
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
The only companion book to the much-anticipated follow-up to Paul Thomas Anderson’s critically hailed Boogie Nights that “leaves you no doubt you are in the presence of a natural-born filmmaker.”–David Ansen, Newsweek. The much-heralded writer-director deliberately withheld information about his new film during production because “I feel lately as if I know everything about a movie before I see it, and I really want the audience to discover this purely.” Featuring an ensemble cast (see below), in, in an unbilled role, Tom Cruise (who called Anderson to express interest in working with him), the film is now described as “a story about family relationships and bonds that have been broken and need to be mended in one day…set in the San Fernando Valley on a day full of rain with no clouds.” Magnolia: The Illustrated Screenplay includes the complete shooting script, introduction and script notes by Anderson, a photo section with about 40 photos in color, and interview with the writer/director, and complete cast and crew credits.
The cast:
The Dying Father–Jason Robards
His Young Wife–Julianne Moore
The Caretaker–Philip Seymour Hoffman
The Boy Genius–Jeremy Blackman
His Father–Michael Bowen
The Game Show Host–Philip Baker Hall
The Daughter–Melora Walters
The Mother–Melinda Dillon
The Ex-Boy Genius–William H. Macy
The Police Officer in Love–John C. ReillyAmazon.com Review
At three hours long, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia qualifies as an epic, with a broad scope of characters whose lives become entwined over the course of a day in the San Fernando Valley. Despite its vast canvas, though, this is probably one of the most intimate epics you’ll ever experience, because Anderson and his cast of actors delve into their characters so deeply that you feel you instantly know them. Anderson’s screenplay of Magnolia is similar–a few pages in, you’ll be hooked by the story and the characters. Numerous critics have derided Anderson’s talents as a screenwriter while praising him to the skies as a director, but the screenplay for Magnolia shows a filmmaker at work with a keen eye for character development and a penchant for both brilliant monologues and amazingly deft one-liners. And unlike most published screenplays (which bill themselves as a “shooting script” but are in reality just a transcript of the finished product), this screenplay is truly the working script, complete with typos and scenes that didn’t make it into the final cut of the film. Reading the screenplay, you’ll see Tom Cruise’s scenes with Jason Robards become more fleshed out, more scenes from Cruise’s motivational workshop on “Seduce and Destroy,” and most significantly, a subplot involving whiz kid Stanley Spector and the mysterious character known as “the Worm,” who pops up only briefly in the film. Also included are some stunning color photographs and a great interview with Anderson, where you’ll find out who gave him the idea of the rain of frogs, which character in the film is his favorite, and why he used a game-show milieu for a large part of the film. Truly a companion piece to the movie, a testament to the vision of a filmmaker, and, as Anderson puts it in his introduction, “an interesting study of a writer writing from his gut.” –Mark Englehart
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Tags: Magnolia, magnolia screenplay, magnolia script, Screenplay, screenwriter, Script, script magnolia, Shooting, shooting script, the shooting script
Category: Shooting Scripts | Posted by: brian on March 17, 2010
5 Comments to “Magnolia: The Shooting Script”
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By Eric Wilkinson, March 17, 2010 @ 11:32 am
MAGNOLIA, the new epic from BOOGIE NIGHTS director Paul Thomas Anderson, is an incredible fete. It has the distinction of being the most intimate epic ever. It’s the funniest and saddest and most affecting epic ever. And it’s an epic that is the absolute best film of the 20th Century.
It intertwines 9 people over one day in L.A. and not the way you’d expect.
The ending is so incredible but critically questioned it’s worth seeing to believe.
Rating: 5 / 5
By Anonymous, March 17, 2010 @ 1:07 pm
I have to say when I first read the script I was kinda of disappointed because there are changed lines in it like the scene where Frank meets his father for the first time its almost completely changed but I’m not mad its cool reading stuff from what Anderson wrote first But disappointing there are so many great stuff that are in the film but not in the script thats why I’m disappointed. Its a very well done script but changed.
See Magnolia first and then read the screenplay.
Matt
Rating: 4 / 5
By avdr, March 17, 2010 @ 2:08 pm
i bought this script cause the movie was great.the script is a terrific piece of work and it shows from cover to cover.although this is the shooting script,it didn’t stop me from directing the script in my head.everything about it was great,from the characters to the nice color photos in the back,to the smell of the smell of the book.the interview of paul thomas anderson was also nice,allowing us to see how he came up with the characters and how he was inspired. clearly the theme of this wonderful story is regret.we feel for the characters as they are put in a position where they have to face their sins of the past and as they do,they regret not doing things differently.its a very powerful screenplay that really gets to you.a lot of people think its too long but its just right because all eight characters took their time to develope in front of the reader.the screenplay does get to you and judging by his latest screenplay,paul thomas anderson will have movie fans through out the world eagerly awaiting his next film.i know i will.
Rating: 5 / 5
By Nathan Keller, March 17, 2010 @ 2:13 pm
A few years ago, I ran into Mister Anderson during a signing of the DVD release of “Boogie Nights” in Hollywood, California. He spoke about movies and his current project back then, “Magnolia” and told me it would be quite an extensive piece of work. But what he failed to mention was that this work was a poetic masterpiece in both story, character, and dialogue, Mister Anderson is a master in that field. So when I saw the film, I had to have the book. Mister Anderson is, and always will be, a huge influence on my films (e.g. “Traffic Signals” and “Populus”). Bravo to you, Mister Anderson.
Rating: 5 / 5
By Iain Black, March 17, 2010 @ 2:32 pm
Man this is perhaps one of the best movies and books to come along in some time. Personally it should have been movie of the year in 1999 and is on my all time top 10 list for sure.
Rating: 5 / 5