Paul Thomas Anderson fansite Cigarettes & Red Vines have hit the ball clear out of the park once again with their latest update on the acclaimed director’s adaptation of the Thomas Pynchons classic hippy-noir Inherent Vice. Since it was announced in 2010, information has been gradually released in the occasional drips here and there, due to the high-profile production and release of The Master. With that film out of the way, the floodgates have opened and you’re about to get more info than you ever dreamed possible, so open wide.
Firstly, let’s look at what we already know. Joaquin Phoenix is cast as pot-smoking private detective Doc Sportello (with the badass sideburns to prove it), and in an interview with the site last year, producer JoAnne Sellar said that they were aiming for a late April/early May start date production-wise. Rumours on Twitter that Annapurna Pictures, financiers behind The Master, were not involved in the production of Inherent Vice, appear to be vindicated as Warner Bros. have agreed to fully finance the film, no doubt buoyed by the critical and commercial success of The Master. While Joaquin Phoenix is the only definite cast member announced, it appears that most of the roles have already been filled, just not revealed, so expect more actors to be announced shortly.
Finally, and most excitingly, Robert Elswit is confirmed as returning to the fold after relinquishing the cinematography reins to Mihai Malaimare Jr. for The Master. He worked with the director on all of his films bar The Master, and got the Oscar for his work on There Will Be Blood.
So there you have it, a new Paul Thomas Anderson movie, less than a year after the last. We are truly living in the greatest of all possible worlds. Huzzah and, indeed, hurrah.