Magnolia

Magnolia (1999)

Timing: 3:9 (189 min)

7.732/10
3966

7.378/10
49861

8/10
349000

All about film

Video 8

Photo 147

Actors and characters

Release date

1999-12-17

Country

United States

Production

New Line Cinema, Ghoulardi Film Company, JoAnne Sellar Productions

Genre

Drama

Budget

$37 000 000

Revenue

$48 451 803

Website

https://www.warnerbros.com/magnolia

Director

Paul Thomas Anderson

Actors

Tom Cruise, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Melora Walters, Jeremy Blackman, Jason Robards, Melinda Dillon
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Paul Thomas Anderson

Producer

Paul Thomas Anderson, JoAnne Sellar, Michael De Luca, Lynn Harris

Operator

Robert Elswit

Composer

Jon Brion

Artist

Shepherd Frankel

Audition

Cassandra Kulukundis

Editing

Dylan Tichenor, Daniel P. Collins, Craig Markey
All team (373)

• Tom Cruise agreed to the role immediately after reading the film's script.
• Filming took 90 days, although it was originally planned to be completed in 77.
• The same phone number – (818)775-3993 – is used twice in the film: first Phil calls it, then it turns out to be the number of Linda's pharmacy.
• The word 'fuck' is used 190 times in the film.
• When police officer Jim Carring loses his gun, a person in a hooded jacket briefly appears in the frame. This is actor Orlando Jones, whose scenes were cut from the film.
• Anderson wrote the screenplay in two weeks. The entire time he was at William H. Macy's cabin in Vermont and was afraid to go outside because he saw a snake. Claudia, played by Melora Walters, was the first character Anderson came up with. All the other characters were then 'tailored' to fit her. Anderson also designed the film's poster and edited the promotional videos himself.
• Anderson visited the set of Stanley Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut' (1999), where he offered Tom Cruise the role of Frank Mackey.
• Henry Gibson plays Thurston Howell; the character received this name in honor of Jim Backus's character from the series 'Gilligan's Island' (1964–1967).
• The director initially offered the role of the dying Earl Partridge to George C. Scott. The actor angrily threw away the script and declared it was 'the worst thing I've ever read; the language is simply disgusting.' The role of Partridge went to Jason Robards. Robards outlived his character by only a year.
• In 1999, Kevin Smith published a highly negative review of 'Magnolia' (1999) on his forum, sparking a real war between fans of Paul Thomas Anderson and Kevin Smith. The film 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back' contains a reference to this feud: one of the usernames on the forum that Jay and Silent Bob are reading is Magnolia-Fan.
• The film depicts a rather rare meteorological phenomenon, namely rain of frogs. 7,900 rubber frogs were used in the scene with the frog rain; the rest were added digitally. For the benefit of animal rights activists, it was reported that no real frogs were used in the film. Anderson said he initially didn't realize that the rain of frogs was a direct quote from the Bible (Exodus 8:2). He took this image from the work of scientist Charles Fort. Actor Henry Gibson told him about the biblical plot, after which Anderson made a special reference to the "original source".
• Anderson wrote the screenplay in two weeks. All this time he was at William H. Macy's cabin in Vermont and was afraid to go outside because he saw a snake. Claudia, played by Melora Walters, was the first character Anderson came up with. All the other characters were then “tailored” to her. Anderson also designed the film's poster and edited the trailers himself.
• Anderson visited the set of Stanley Kubrick's film 'Eyes Wide Shut' (1999), where he offered Tom Cruise the role of Frank Mackey.
• Henry Gibson plays Thurston Howell; the character received this name in honor of Jim Backus's character from the series 'Gilligan's Island' (1964–1967).
• The director initially offered the role of the dying Earl Partridge to George C. Scott. The actor angrily threw the script aside and stated that it was “the worst thing I’ve ever read; the language is simply disgusting.” The role of Partridge went to Jason Robards. Robards outlived his character by only a year.
• In 1999, Kevin Smith published a highly negative review of 'Magnolia' (1999) on his forum, which sparked a real war between fans of Paul Thomas Anderson and Kevin Smith. The film 'Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back' contains a reference to this feud: one of the usernames on the forum that Jay and Silent Bob are reading is Magnolia-Fan.
• The film depicts a rather rare meteorological phenomenon, such as rain of frogs. 7,900 rubber frogs were used in the scene with the frog rain; the rest were added digitally. For the information of animal rights activists, it was reported that no real frogs were used in the film. Anderson recounted that he initially was unaware that the rain of frogs was a direct quote from the Bible (Exodus 8:2). He took this image from the work of scientist Charles Fort. He was told about the biblical plot by actor Henry Gibson, after which Anderson made a specific reference to the 'original source'.