Claim: Paul Thomas Anderson directed a movie.
Evidence: After he attended the Sundance Institute , Anderson had a deal with Rysher Entertainment to direct his first feature film , a neo-noir crime thriller titled Hard Eight , in 1996.
Hard Eight is a 1996 American neo-noir crime thriller film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson , and stars Philip Baker Hall , John C. Reilly , Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson , with brief appearances by Robert Ridgely , Philip Seymour Hoffman and Melora Walters.