Magnolia was released in 1999. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Produced by Anderson along with JoAnne Sellar. The film would earn Tom Cruise a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Academy Awards, and a win for Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes. It was also nominated for Best Music, Original Song for "Save Me" by Aimee Mann, and for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. The film also won the Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
It was made for an estimated budget of $37 million with a worldwide box office of $26 million and was distributed by New Line Cinema. The picture is described as a mosaic of interrelated stories about characters living in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles.
Anderson describes wanting to "make the epic, the all-time great San Fernando Valley movie." Anderson was inspired by images of actors he had in mind for the project along with other visual concepts he created the basis for the screenplay, and characters were born out of such collaborations with John C. Reilly and he created a parody of COPS. In this instance, Anderson would chase Reilly around the street as he riffed and created a cop character. This turned into Reilly's character of Jim Kurring.
