PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON - ANDERSON DEDICATES NEW MOVIE TO RELAXED ALTMAN

ANDERSON DEDICATES NEW MOVIE TO RELAXED ALTMAN

Moviemaker PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON has dedicated his new movie THERE WILL BE BLOOD to ROBERT ALTMAN, because the late director didn't live to see the film he helped inspire. The Magnolia director honed his craft on the set of Altman's A Prairie Home Companion, for which he was drafted in as ailing Robert Altman's assistant as an insurance measure. Anderson recalls, "I got the job of sitting next to him... just in case anything happened with him. "Obviously it was a privilege and an honour and all that, and I just had such an amazing good time for 30 days. "Bob was very good at relaxing... I would find myself getting uptight about things, and he just sort of looked at me, like, 'What are you worried about? It's all going to be fine.' I learned that from him to relax a little bit more. "He died while we were cutting There Will Be Blood. I was planning to show it to him. I was in Ireland with Daniel Day-Lewis working on the film, and I was planning to come back and show it to him and never got a chance to. "That's really a drag that he didn't get to see it. So we dedicated the film to him." Altman died of complications from leukaemia in November 2006. He was 81.