As the Internet continues to gripe about Paul Thomas Anderson being one of several directors overlooked by the Directors Guild of America despite his stellar work on the controversial and challenging The Master, the director seems to have already moved on to his next project and is starting to circle potential cast members.
Anderson’s next film has been confirmed as an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel Inherent Vice, according to Showbiz 411. Originally published in 2009, the book is set in Los Angeles circa 1969, and follows a detective character in a pseudo-noir involving ex-girlfriends, real-estate moguls, vindictive LAPD officers, widows to nightclub musicians, and other stock characters from the criminal underworld.
For years, Robert Downey Jr. has been attached to the project, even with PTA jumping on and off the title. Rumors of their involvement has stretched all the way back to 2010, so it’s exciting to hear that Anderson might be ready to move forward on it, but these wheels have been spinning for a while and we’ll see if the project actually gets off the ground.
It helps that Showbiz also says that Charlize Theron also is considering a part in the film, with “more names coming.” So it’s possible that the mechanisms are about to kick into high gear on Inherent Vice, which is great news. That might mean that we could have a new PTA in theaters by 2014. A California noir from the Golden State’s favorite son, with RDJ stepping back into the off-the-cuff crime vibe of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang? We say hell yes. Just don’t expect the guilds to recognize Anderson’s genius.
