There Will Be Blood - Academy Awards Best Picture

"There Will Be Blood" nominated for eight Acadamy Awards, won two Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Best Cinematography (Robert Elswit).

A sprawling epic about family, faith, power and oil, THERE WILL BE BLOOD is set on the radical frontier of California’s turn-of-the-century petroleum boom.

The story chronicles the rise of one Daniel Plainview (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 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. (Dillon Freasier), to take their chances in dust-worn Little Boston.

In this hardscrabble town, where the main excitement centers around the holy roller church of charismatic preacher Eli Sunday (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 (PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, MAGNOLIA, BOOGIE NIGHTS, HARD EIGHT). Anderson’s screenplay is loosely based upon the classic, 1920s muck-raking novel Oil! tycoon, in the mold of such historical oil pioneers as Edward Doheny and John Rockefeller, Plainview will bring progress and riches to a land that has never known them, at a cost that will blacken his very soul.

As portrayed by Academy Award®-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis, Daniel Plainview is a man whose charm, aspirations and uncompromising obsession with remaining self-made will stir up a maelstrom in the Central California town of Little Boston. As oil gushes up from the ground, Plainview will bring changes of operatic sweep to this insular world pitting belief, hope, love and hard work against cynicism, greed, seduction and monstrous corruption.

Shot in Marfa, Texas where the legendary oil-themed GIANT was filmed decades ago, Anderson and a devoted cast and crew have crafted a symphonic tapestry of images that appear to come to vivid, visceral life right out of a sepia-toned photograph -- yet are completely original and intimately specific to Daniel Plainview’s meteoric rise and bloodcurdling descent.

A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production

JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers

This is the first nomination for both JoAnne Sellar and Daniel Lupi. This is the fifth nomination for Paul Thomas Anderson and the first in this category. He is also nominated this year in the Directing and Adapted Screenplay categories. He was nominated for his original screenplays for Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999).

"There Will Be Blood" Nominated for 8 Academy Awards

"There Will Be Blood" The Story

Paul Thomas Anderson, a two-time Academy Award nominee, has previously directed four films set in the West, though each has been its own entirely distinctive exploration of the territory. His first film, HARD EIGHT, was a crime thriller set amidst the casinos of Las Vegas. This was followed by BOOGIE NIGHTS, a kaleidoscopic look at the adult film industry; MAGNOLIA an interwoven tale of one devastating and magical night in the San Fernando Valley; and PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, that rare fresh take on the romantic comedy. THERE WILL BE BLOOD marks Anderson’s first journey into the foundational days of California’s lavish wealth and power, before movies, before high-tech, when oil was the driving force of the land and brought hungry, ambitious men Westward in search of fortune and a new future.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD began with Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil!

Paul Thomas Anderson was primarily inspired by the 500-page novel’s first 150 pages, wherein Sinclair delves in exquisite detail into the gritty, precarious lives of oil prospectors and oil workers.

He was also drawn to Sinclair’s pitting of unbridled greed against unchecked spiritual idealism, each with their own insidious consequences. From that foundation of inspiration, he found his own characters of Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday wending in their own directions, towards their own intertwined fates.

Anderson began to do further research prowling through the oil museums that dot California letting the era’s plentiful, richly atmospheric photographs further fire up his imagination. “You get giddy looking at all those amazing photos,” Anderson notes, “getting a real sense of how people lived their lives. There’s so much history in the oil areas around Bakersfield -- they’re filled with the grandsons of oil workers and lots of folklore. So we did an incredible amount of research and I got to be a student again and that was a thrill.”

"There Will Be Blood" The Cast

DANIEL DAY-LEWIS (Daniel Plainview)

From his earliest roles, Daniel Day-Lewis impressed audiences and critics alike, moving easily from a punk rocker in MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDERETTE to a delightfully foppish Victorian suitor in Merchant-Ivory's A ROOM WITH A VIEW. Together these performances earned him 1986's New York Film Critics Circle Award as Best Supporting Actor, the first of a string of accolades, including an Academy Award for Best Actor, three Academy Award nominations, two BAFTA awards for Best Actor, four BAFTA nominations and four Golden Globe nominations. Day-Lewis also won the Screen Actors Guild Award twice, the New York Critics Award three times and the LA Critics Award.

Though Day-Lewis has continued to turn in one highly-praised performance after another, it was his role as writer, artist and cerebral palsy sufferer Christy Brown in MY LEFT FOOT for director Jim Sheridan, which won him an Academy Award for Best Actor. He received his second Academy Award nomination for IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, his second collaboration with Sheridan - the true story of a man unjustly imprisoned for 15 years - and his third for his portrayal of Bill, The Butcher in Martin Scorsese's GANGS OF NEW YORK. His other wide-ranging roles include the early American adventurer Hawkeye in THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, and the aristocratic Newland Archer in his first collaboration with Martin Scorsese, THE AGE OF INNOCENCE.

Born in London (but now an Irish citizen), Day-Lewis was first introduced to acting when he was at school in Kent, England. His acting debut was in CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY and his film debut was at the age of 14 in SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, in which he played a vandal in an uncredited role. He later applied and was accepted to the renowned Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, which he attended for three years, eventually performing at the Bristol Old Vic itself. In the 1970s and early 1980s, he worked on stage, appearing with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, turning in notable performances in Another Country, Dracula, Futurists and Hamlet, in which he played the title role.

Day-Lewis's additional film credits include Philip Kaufman's film version of THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING, in which he won praise for his memorable performance in the leading role, and the Arthur Miller classic THE CRUCIBLE, in which he portrayed Puritan John Proctor opposite Winona Ryder, directed by Nicholas Hytner. He joined up with Jim Sheridan once again for the lead role in THE BOXER, and most recently Day-Lewis was seen in Rebecca Miller's powerful and poetic THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE.

PAUL DANO (Paul Sunday/Eli Sunday)

Despite his relatively short acting career, Paul Dano has already distinguished himself among his peers. Growing up in Manhattan and Connecticut, Dano began his career on the New York stage with supporting roles on Broadway including Inherit The Wind opposite George C Scott and Charles Durning; A Month In The Country opposite Helen Mirren; and A Christmas Carol with Ben Vereen and Terrence Mann.

Dano starred in last year's Oscar-nominated LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE among an ensemble cast including Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear. His performance as a physical fitness/Nietzsche devotee who has taken a vow of silence earned him a Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for "Best Young Actor" and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for "Best Supporting Actor." The cast also received a SAG Award nomination for "Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture" and an IFP Gotham Award nomination for "Best Ensemble Cast."

Dano's other film roles are a testament to his ability to handle a wide variety of roles.

With his feature film debut in the coming-of-age drama LIE (2001 Sundance Film Festival), Dano earned an Independent Spirit Award for "Best Debut Performance." His mesmerizing portrayal of an innocent teenager forced to navigate his adolescence virtually unsupervised also garnered him a "Best Actor" Award at the Stockholm Film Festival and tied him for the Grand Jury Award for "Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film" at LA's Outfest.

In DJ Caruso's TAKING LIVES, Dano played a mysterious and murderous drifter. Conversely, Dano played a solidly Christian pastor's son and innocent victim of a senseless crime in THE KING (2005 Cannes Film Festival) opposite Gael Garcia Bernal. Rebecca Miller's THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE (2005 Sundance Film Festival) featured Dano as a sexual predator who sets his sights on Daniel Day-Lewis' teenage daughter. As part of an ensemble cast in Richard Linklater's FAST FOOD NATION (2006 Cannes Film Festival), Dano played a disaffected teenager slaving away at a fast food restaurant. Other credits include Michael Hoffman's THE EMPEROR'S CLUB opposite Kevin Kline and GIRL NEXT DOOR opposite Emile Hirsch and Jesse Eisenberg.

In addition to Paul Thomas Anderson's THERE WILL BE BLOOD, in which he is reunited with Daniel Day-Lewis, Dano stars in Adam Bhala Lough's WEAPONS (2007 Sundance Film Festival) and Spike Jonze's WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, based on Maurice Sendak's children's classic and featuring a cast which includes Forest Whitaker, Catherine Keener and Michelle Williams, among others.

Dano is currently continuing his college studies in New York City.

KEVIN J O'CONNOR (Henry)

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kevin trained at the DePaul/Goodman School of Drama. He appeared in the stage production of El Salvador at the Steppenwolf Theatre and made his New York, off - Broadway debut in The Colorado Catechism at the Circle Repertory Company.

Kevin made his screen debut in Francis Coppola's PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED. Since then he has appeared in numerous films including; Alan Rudolph's THE MODERNS, Robert Frank's CANDY MOUNTAIN, Herbert Ross's STEEL MAGNOLIAS, Stephen Frears' HERO, Michael Moore's CANADIAN BACON and has appeared several times for Stephen Sommers including THE MUMMY. His television work includes "Gideon's Crossing," Robert Altman's "Tanner '88" and "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial."

Most recently he was featured in the Western SERAPHIM FALLS with Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan, and in Paul Thomas Anderson's THERE WILL BE BLOOD starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

CIARN HINDS (Fletcher)

Ciarn Hinds is well known to watchers of the HBO series Rome for his portrayal of Julius Caesar. In 2003, he received an IFTA (Irish Film and Television Academy) nomination as Best Supporting Actor for Veronica Guerin, and in 2004 he received the award for Best Actor in the miniseries The Mayor of Casterbridge.

Ciarn began his career at The Glasgow Citizens Theatre and was a member of the company for many years. In Ireland, he has worked at the Lyric Theatre Belfast, the Druid Theatre in Galway and at the Project and the Abbey in Dublin, where he last appeared as Cuchulain in The Yeats Cycle. For the Gate Theatre he has appeared with The Field Day Company's version of Antigone, The School for Wives and Brian Friel's The Yalta Game. He toured internationally with Peter Brook's Company in The Mahabharata and has played leading roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Court, the Donmar Warehouse and the National Theatre, where he last played in Patrick Marber's Closer, which also transferred to Broadway.

He made his film debut in 1981 in John Boorman's EXCALIBUR, and went on to appear in such films as THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER, DECEMBER BRIDE, CIRCLE OF FRIENDS for Pat O'Connor and TITANIC TOWN directed by Roger Michel. His other notable films include SOME MOTHER'S SON, Gillian Armstrong's OSCAR AND LUCINDA, THE LOST SON, THE WEIGHT OF WATER and MARY REILLY.

Among his more recent work is Sam Mendes' THE ROAD TO PERDITION, JONJO MIKYBO, CALENDAR GIRLS with Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, LARA CROFT: THE CRADLE OF LIFE with Angelina Jolie, THE STATEMENT for Norman Jewison, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA for Joel Schumacher, Michael Mann's MIAMI VICE and Steven Spielberg's MUNICH.

In 2006 Ciarn filmed AMAZING GRACE for Michael Apted, NATIVITY for Catherine Hardwicke, HALLAM FOE for David MacKenzie, A TIGER'S TAIL for John Boorman, THERE WILL BE BLOOD for Paul Thomas Anderson and STOP LOSS for Kimberly Peirce. Most recently, Ciarn has filmed IN BRUGES for Martin McDonagh, voiced a character for animated feature film THE TALE OF THE DESPERAUX, filmed MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY for Bharat Nalluri, and is currently shooting CASH for Eric Besnard.

His television work also includes Jane Eyre, Jason and the Argonauts, Seaforth, Ivanhoe, Rules Of Engagement, Sherlock Holmes, Soldier, Soldier, Prime Suspect 3 and the award-winning film of Jane Austen's Persuasion, in which he played Captain Wentworth.

DILLON FREASIER (HW)

HW is a pivotal character in THERE WILL BE BLOOD. The role required a special 10 year-old boy to play in the early 1900s, a young man in a child's body. Focusing on finding an outdoorsy boy more interested in camping and horseback riding than playing video games and watching TV, the casting director conducted a nationwide search. Dillon Freasier was discovered in a tiny town called Fort Davis, Texas. Young Dillon Freasier's personality is what first caught the casting director's eye. He is a rodeo enthusiast who competes in roping horses, winning numerous ribbons for his ranching skills. He has been an avid rider since learning to walk, and his skills as a ranch hand and his ease around horses leant young Dillon a sense of maturity beyond his few years. His confidence around people at least three times his age made the transition to film an easy one. He is self-possessed, comfortable with himself, and this quality is present when he is in front of the camera. He is an authentic cowboy and a true find.

No Country wins Best Picture, Best Director. Daniel Day-Lewis wins best actor for his role in "There Will Be Blood". Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton Win Supporting Role Academy Awards, Ratatouille awarded Oscar for Best Animation Feature

Best Actress Academy Award Nominations

80th Academy Awards 2008 Best Actor Oscar Nominees

80th Academy Awards 2008 Best Picture Oscar Nominees

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT

BOOKS | TELEVISION | MUSIC | THE ARTS | MOVIES | CULTURE

 

 

 

"There Will Be Blood" Best Picture Oscar Starring Daniel Day-Lewis

© iHaveNet.com