12:05pm UPDATE: S. Todd Christensen, the Santa Fe-based location manager for "There Will Be Blood," tells the Journal's film columnist Dan Mayfield that he tried to sell Paramount on filming in Albuquerque, but the company went elsewhere.

So, it turns out we can't claim the eight-time Oscar-nominated film as our own. 

Christensen, who also approved New Mexico locations for "In the Valley of Elah," told Mayfield he wasn't sure how so many Web sites and film production databases ended up showing Albuquerque as a location for "There Will Be Blood."

Just when we thought we'd caught the Governor's Office in an error, we received two e-mails this morning insisting that Academy Award best-picture nominee "There Will Be Blood" was NOT filmed in New Mexico.

One of those e-mails, from the New Mexico Film Office, said that the Internet Movie Database listing of locations that we linked to earlier was incorrect and that "There Will Be Blood" scouted extensively in New Mexico, but ended up only shooting in Texas and California.

We swear, though, we didn't just make this New Mexico stuff up.

References to "There Will Be Blood" being filmed in Albuquerque appear not just on IMDB.com , but also in the Hollywood Reporter, Variety, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Hollywood.com and on Yahoo.com.

Maybe there's some "Ur-Source" for the Albuquerque reference that some biblical scholar will dig up. 

6:10am -- Move Over, Hollywood: Not just "No Country" but  five N.M.-made films get Oscar nominations.

We were so excited yesterday when the Academy Awards nominations came out and "No Country for Old Men" got eight Oscar nods, that we gave the other New Mexico-made nominees short shrift.

The Albuquerque Journal's Dan Mayfield reminds us this morning that "There Will Be Blood," the only other film with eight nominations and another best-picture hopeful,  also was filmed in New Mexico, as were three other movies with some familiar-looking landscapes.

"There Will Be Blood," a turn-of-the-20th-century saga of oil and greed starring best-actor nominee Daniel Day-Lewis, was filmed in California, Texas, but also in Albuquerque, according to the Internet Movie Database. 

Tommy Lee Jones, who also starred in "No Country for Old Men," got a best-actor nomination for "In the Valley of Elah," which also was filmed here.

"Transformers," which was filmed in Albuquerque, Alamogordo and the White Sands Missile Range, was nominated for the sound mixing and visual effects Oscars.

And the remake of the western "3:10 to Yuma" garnered nominations in the sound mixing and original score categories, Mayfield writes.

We don't feel too bad, though, because the Governor's Office also overlooked "There Will Be Blood" in a news release that touted New Mexico's growing prowess in the movie-making business.

"We can say with proven certainty that New Mexico is a world-class film destination," Gov. Bill Richardson said in the release.

Turns out it's even better than the governor thought.

Here's Dan's story (from this morning's eJournal):

6:55am 1/22/08 -- N.M.-Made Film Gets 8 Oscar Nods: "No Country ..." tied with "There Will Be Blood" for most nominations.

The Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men," filmed largely in New Mexico, was tied with "There Will Be Blood" with eight Academy Awards nominations apiece, but it is unclear whether anyone will show up to get their Oscar because of the ongoing screenwriters' strike, The Associated Press reports.

In addition to a "Best Picture" nomination, "No Country for Old Men" won nods for Joel and Ethan Coen as best director, Javier Bardem for best supporting actor (in his chilling role as the killer Anton Chigurh), the Coens again for best adapted screenplay, as well as nominations for cinematography, sound mixing, sound editing and film editing.

Here's the complete list.

Despite being passed over for best picture at the truncated Golden Globes awards earlier this month, "No Country for Old Men" is the early front-runner for the best-picture Oscar, according to his report from Agence France-Press.

Described as a bleak thriller about what happens when a drug deal near the Mexican border goes terribly wrong, "No Country for Old Men" was adapted from the prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy, who lives near Santa Fe. 

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