Paul Thomas Anderson, né le 26 juin 19701 à Studio City en Californie (États-Unis), est un scénariste, réalisateur et producteur américain. (fiche wikipedia complète et détaillée).

Le réalisateur gravite autour de Radiohead, dont il est fan, depuis déjà presque 15 ans.

En 2002/2003, Paul Thomas Anderson est avec le groupe avec Los Angeles.

[quote cite=’Official Hail To The Thief Interview CD, avril 2003′]We Suck Young Blood’… hmm, yeah… I mean, I think that’s funny. That track to me is funny. I mean, sort of… I mean, it’s sort of so vaudeville and like… we had all these fantasies about… when we were recording it we had… Paul Thomas Anderson came to the studio, and he brought this camera with him, which was a 1920s… it was exactly the same camera model, that they shot the original Nosferatu on. This camera is basically just a box and you wind it. And you have to have a sort of tempo to wind it to. And if you wind it fast or slow you get this extraordinary movement. And we wanted to shoot this sort of really over the top, vaudeville sort of b-movie thing with it. Because that to me was totally where it was coming from, you know. And also it’s really sick, and sort of like sexual in a really perverse way. Very L.A., as far as I’m concerned. I mean, I think that was the reason we went to L.A., ’cause ‘We Suck Young Blood’ was.. that was our take on Hollywood, really, basically. In fact we went out to a party that night. We went to this place and… [whispers] you people are so silly. And it was like that’s how they dressed every day to create an impression. It was brilliant. We felt like old people or maybe we’d missed something.[/quote]

C’est en particulier avec Jonny Greenwood que le courant va passer. Le réalisateur a été particulièrement marqué par la performance de Jonny Greenwood dans la bande-originale de Bodysong (documentaire réalisé en 2003 par le Britannique Simon Pummel), et il donc fait appel à ce dernier pour travailler avec lui sur There Will Be Blood après avoir entendu son morceau Popcorn Superhet Receiver.

Après quelques hésitations de la part de Greenwood rapidement rassuré par Anderson, Greenwood accepte de s’occuper de l’enregistrement de la bande-originale, travail qui l’occupera trois semaines dans les Studios Abbey Road à Londres.

[quote cite=’Uncut, novembre 2012, An audience with Jonny Greenwood’]Q : How did you begin your collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson? What attracted you to his films?
Shane Rubano, Ithaca. NY

Jonny Greenwood : He found some bootleg recordings of some of my orchestral stuff. And tried it on a few early scenes for There Will Be Blood – then he asked for more. He’s enthusiastic about music, he came to the strings’ recording day in Abbey Road and we were both buzzing about being that close to an orchestra. [/quote]

Le film et sa Bande Originale sont fortement salués. Par la suite, Jonny travaillera aussi à la bande originale de deux films d’Anderson : The Master et Inherent Vice (film pour lequel Radiohead a enregistré une chanson, Spooks) ; ainsi que sur le reportage Junun.

En 2016, Paul Thom as Anderson réalisé le clip de Daydreaming.