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Boogie Nights (1997)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson · Cut by Dylan Tichenor · Music by Michael Penn · Ratio 2.35:1 · 149 min
How it was made
- Anderson originally wanted Boogie Nights to run over three hours with an NC-17 rating; when producers insisted it be under three hours or rated R, he chose the R rating as a challenge, though the finished film still came in 25 minutes shorter than promised.
- The scene of Cosmo throwing firecrackers throughout the drug-deal sequence was not in the original script; it was written in after Anderson saw his friend Joe G. M. Chan randomly throwing firecrackers at a party and invited him to appear in the film.
- Burt Reynolds wanted to play Jack Horner with an Irish accent and used it on his first day of shooting before abandoning it the next day.
- The film grew out of The Dirk Diggler Story, a mockumentary short Anderson wrote and directed in high school, itself based on a real 1981 documentary about porn actor John Holmes.
- Anderson had not initially considered Heather Graham for Rollergirl because he had never seen her perform nude on screen, until her agent called directly to ask for an audition, which she then won.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Paul Thomas Anderson
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