VARIETY CHIMES IN ON PTA's LATEST OPUS

Variety's top-dog critic Todd McCarthy has weighed in on Paul Thomas Anderson's upcoming film THERE WILL BE BLOOD, which is set for limited release at Christmas with a slow roll out planned in the weeks after. Anderson, the visionary behind HARD EIGHT, BOOGIE NIGHTS, MAGNOLIA, and PUNCH DRUNK LOVE, has adapted the famous 1927 Upton Sinclair novel Oil!, and set screen legend Daniel Day Lewis as the lead.

I am a gigantic fan of Anderson; he's the closest thing to the next Martin Scorsese that American cinema has. I have not seen the film, and more than likely, it will be one of the last 2007 releases that I see for the year. But more than likely one of the best. Here's an non-spoiler excerpt from McCarthy's rave review:

"Boldy and magnificently strange, "There Will Be Blood" marks a significant departure in the work of Paul Thomas Anderson. Heretofore fixated on his native Los Angeles and most celebrated for his centempo ensemblers, writer-helmer this time branches out with an intense, increasingly insidious character study of a turn-of-the-century California oil man. There's no getting around the fact that this Paramount Vantage/Miramax co-venture reps yet another 2 1/2 hour plus, male-centric American art film, a species that has recently proven difficult to market to more than rarefied audiences. Distribs will have to roll the dice and use hoped-for kudos for the film and its superb star, Daniel Day-Lewis, to create the impression of must-see."

I can't f'ing wait to see this film.