Paul Thomas Anderson Shooting Inherent Vice this Spring?

Posted by on January 31st, 2013   Filed under: Books/Comics, Comedy
Source: Cigarettes & Red Vines

Paul Thomas Anderson movies have a history of lengthy development periods, mostly due to funding issues. Fans have now become accustomed to (but don’t necessarily enjoy) waiting 5 years between projects. However, they may not have as long a waiting period this time according to Anderson’s longtime producer, JoAnne Sellar. In reference to Anderson’s latest film, Inherent Vice, she’s quoted as saying, “We’re just putting the financing together and the plan is to start shooting in late April.” This news comes just a week after reports that Joaquin Phoenix would replace Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role, so perhaps things really are moving ahead. For those uninitiated, Inherent Vice will be an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel about a pothead private eye in the late 1960′s who becomes entangled in a strange case after an encounter with his ex-girlfriend.

Although this may seem like a quick turnaround for Anderson, it’s important to note that he has been working on the adaptation for several years now, which certainly helps move things along. The prospect of any new Anderson film is fine by me, and the sooner, the better. Of course, we’ve seen plenty of false starts with his films before, so I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high. Still, the idea of him teaming up with Phoenix again holds a lot of promise. Also, I like that Inherent Vice will be more of a comedic venture, which is something we haven’t seen from Anderson in a while. How many of you are looking forward to this one coming together soon?

Around the Web:

  • http://twitter.com/ndf piggystardust

    Noice. I only just discovered PTA and I was kind of bummed that I missed an opportunity to see one of his movies in theaters last year, thinking it would be a long wait for the next one.

  • La Menthe

    Even though you haven’t seen any of his films in theaters yet (I myself must wait until the end of February till I can see The Master here in Norway), I still envy you. I could have given everything to experience Punch-Drunk Love for the first time again.

  • Bas

    Crazy how PTA apparently still has trouble financing his projects.

  • rjdelight

    Ya it blows my mind that a filmmaker of his caliber has trouble getting projects going. Although this one seems to have more commercial appeal than The Master. Can’t wait!

  • patrik

    I haven’t checked to see how much money his movies have made but if a studio is looking at an almost certain loss or break even numbers, then it’s not exactly hard to see why they wouldn’t finance him.. They probably don’t care that he’s PTA.

  • La Menthe

    He directs art films, so no, it’s not hard to understand why he can’t finance his films in Hollywood. And, as patrick mentioned, how much his films make are important to how good financing he gets. Punch-Drunk Love had a particularly high budget of $25 million (Sandler alone claimed 7$ of it, if I don’t remember wrong), of which it only made back $24 million. But what I don’t understand is that There Will Be Blood had the same budget of $25million, but grossed $75 million. Surely that income, along with the fact that it won or was nominated to numerous prestigious awards, should have made it easier for him to finance The Master.

  • Bas

    Though his movies are works of art, his numbers haven’t been all that terrible when you look them up. Like La Menthe said, his last film grossed triple the budget and his projects are now almost guaranteed of Oscar nominations. A good investment especially for wealthy wannabe patrons of the arts.

  • FDB

    As much as I hate Robert Downey, he was a much better fit for Doc Sportello than Joaquin Phoenix.

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