I drink your Riemann hypothesis! I drink it up!
February 12, 2011 8:08 AM   Subscribe

Paul Thomas Anderson set to direct Inherent Vice. Yes, Anderson (There Will Be Blood, Punch Drunk Love, Boogie Nights) "has, in fact, obtained the blessing of Pynchon and — in frequent consultation with the eremite novelist himself — has not only written a first draft, but is more than halfway done with a second." Financing to come from Megan Ellison (True Grit), who will also be bankrolling the other long languishing Anderson film, The Master, set to star Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Further reading: LRB on Inherent Vice.
posted by geoff. (14 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: posted previously -- jessamyn



 
Double. Should've searched ARPANET first.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:10 AM on February 12, 2011


A double?
"!Pendejo!" screamed the parrot. "Think! Double refraction! Your favorite optical property! Silver mines, full of espato double-refracting all the time, and not only light rays, naw, uh-uh! Cities, too! People! Parrots! You just keep floating along in that gringo smoke cloud, thinking there's only one of everything, huevon, you don't see those strange lights all around you. Ay, Chihuahua. In fact, Ay, Chihuahua, Chihuahua. Kid engineers! All alike. Closed minds. Always been your problem." Giving in at length to parrot hysteria, sinister in its prolonged indifference.
"Here's your problem," Frank approaching Joaquin with his hands out in strangling position.
The comandante, sensing psitticide in the air, came hurrying up.
posted by geoff. at 8:12 AM on February 12, 2011


This is place is as good as any to trumpet my relative dislike of Inherent Vice. This project has the potential to be one of those movie adaptations superior to the source material.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:14 AM on February 12, 2011


I'm more concerned that Robert Downey Jr. doesn't really give off the same laid-back Art Garfunkel aura of the lead character. This, strangely, is one of the few roles that Matthew McConaughey might be perfectly suited for. There, I said it.
posted by geoff. at 8:31 AM on February 12, 2011 [3 favorites]


The world needs a truthful L. Ron Hubbard biopic. His life is so much weirder than any of his books.
posted by benzenedream at 8:47 AM on February 12, 2011 [1 favorite]


I for one am excited!
posted by PinkMoose at 8:59 AM on February 12, 2011


Yeah, I would be a little disappointed with RDJ in that role... A younger Elliot Gould would be perfect for many reasons, but I suppose that's impossible now.

Inherent Vice is, I suppose, the most filmable of any Pynchon novel I've read, but that's not saying much. So much of the "plot" happens off-screen.
posted by muddgirl at 9:11 AM on February 12, 2011


I'm more interested in the Master if only for the expected accompanying scientologist freakout.
posted by BrotherCaine at 9:28 AM on February 12, 2011 [1 favorite]


Thanks for that! I thought the LRB essay was great. I'm not sure I believe that humans are necessarily all that complicated, but whatever.

This is interesting:
"Though Farben was officially broken up in 1951 on account of its war crimes, various of its constituent parts – Agfa, BASF, Bayer – still exist, and Farben itself was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange until 2003 as a trust company with various real estate assets. The reach, power and longevity of international corporations far surpass those of any individual or government."
posted by sneebler at 9:28 AM on February 12, 2011


I ordered a $2 copy of Inherent Vice online which never came. Also I read V and Gravity's Rainbow. Which means I have absolutely no idea how they can possibly make Pynchon into a movie.
posted by miyabo at 9:29 AM on February 12, 2011


Wow, PSH as LRH.
Can't wait!
posted by Flashman at 9:34 AM on February 12, 2011


I liked Inherent Vice. It seems like it's the book Pynchon wrote to entertain himself. It's breezy and funny and it just kinda lopes along, less concerned with all the literary trappings that festooned Gravity's Rainbow and Mason & Dixon (on the latter: I cheerfully admit I never finished it). It's the slightest, in terms of literary heft, of all his books, and I don't see that as a bad thing.

(And the perfect actor to play Doc Sportello would be Jason Lee.)
posted by BitterOldPunk at 9:42 AM on February 12, 2011


I really liked Inherent Vice. I thought it was different from his other books, but that's not a bad thing. It is defiantly the only one that could have a chance of being a movie that makes sense due to it's length (or lack of) and the subject matter. I would see the movie but would not have too high of expectations.
posted by Dick Laurent is Dead at 9:45 AM on February 12, 2011


And the perfect actor to play Doc Sportello would be Jason Lee.)

Who is a Scientologist, coincidentally. But I concur with that opinion, even though, when I read Inherent Vice, I did so while deliberately picturing Robert Downey Jr. as Sportello.
posted by AugieAugustus at 10:08 AM on February 12, 2011


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