Inherent Vice (201?)

[Dave Monroe]

His next project, which will take him into another chapter of the
century, the late ’60s and early ’70s, is an adaptation of “Inherent
Vice,” the 2009 novel by Thomas Pynchon. The book is a stoner
private-eye saga, and Mr. Anderson has found an invaluable “research
bible,” he said, in the underground comic strip the Fabulous Furry
Freak Brothers.

This is the first authorized adaptation of a Pynchon work, which
suggests that Mr. Pynchon, famously reclusive, is cooperating in some
fashion. But Mr. Anderson, a fan of that author since his teenage
years, declined to speak on the record about him and seemed loath even
to utter his name. “I would get dangerously close to betraying trust,”
he said.

While “There Will Be Blood” was inspired by Upton Sinclair’s “Oil!,”
this will be a more faithful adaptation — and a new kind of
screenwriting challenge — for Mr. Anderson. “It’s more secretarial,”
he said. “The credit should be like ‘secretary to the author.’ ” He
added that he has “a large stack of pages” and hopes to shoot next
year. “But it’s no less fun. In some ways it’s just what the doctor
ordered right now for me: being more selfless.”

As always, the idea is to “burrow around” (a phrase he used more than
once to describe his process) to find his way into someone’s head. Mr.
Anderson said, again without mentioning Mr. Pynchon by name: “It feels
really good to be doing that, being a participant in his mind.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/movies/awardsseason/paul-thomas-anderson-on-preparing-for-and-following-up-the-master.html?pagewanted=2