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.”In the interview he also talks a bit more extensively about his influences for "The Master" in regards to Scientology and how he never saw it as an "epic" but more of a "chamber drama." Read the entire thing here.
"We were talking off mic a little earlier about one of the greats, Paul Thomas Anderson, who is a true auteur - and there are very few of those who I would classify as geniuses - who can write their own material and have a particular vision and take that vision from their lonely room where they're writing with their pen onto their typewriter and take it right the way through to the point where they can make the finished article. I am not one of those people and most directors are not and so you are waiting for material to arrive that speaks to you in some unconscious way and you're not always sure why you're led in one particular direction or another. And it's your duty to be open to everything to some degree and to not try and repeat yourself."Pre-order "The Master" on Blu-ray or DVD.
There’s a strong analog quality to your films in general and the Dark Knight films in particular. You talked about wanting to have a very tactile world, and seeing The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX 70mm you can’t escape the feeling that you’re seeing a film made on film, albeit with hundreds of CGI shots, but integrated in a way that you don’t feel that digital quality in the way you do with most movies that make heavy use of digital technology.
I recently saw a 70mm print of The Master and I realized that, other than my own films, it’s the first photochemically finished film I’ve seen in many years, and it looks the way a movie should look. To me, it’s just a superior form. In The Dark Knight Rises, we have about 430 effects shots out of 3,000, so the idea that the tail wags the dog and then you finish the film in the digital realm is illogical. We make the 430 shots fit in with the remaining 2,500 that we timed photochemically. For that reason, I’ve never done a film with more than 500 effects shots. These films have about a third or a quarter the number of CG shots of any other film on that scale. That allows me to keep working photochemically and to make the digital effects guys print out their negatives so we actually cut the effect with its background plate on film, and we can see whether it matches.
For me, it’s simply the best way to make a film, and why more people haven’t done it I could not tell you. The novelty of digital is part of it. For some filmmakers, there’s a fear of being left behind, which to me is irrational because as a director you’re not responsible for loading a camera. You can hire whoever you need to and shoot how you want to shoot, but I think, very simply, industrial economics favor change, and there’s more money in change, whether or not it’s better. But I talk to a lot of young filmmakers who want to shoot on film and see the value in it. I’ve gone out of my way to screen film prints of The Dark Knight Rises for other filmmakers, because no one prints dailies anymore—they’re not seeing the potential of film—whereas I’ve been seeing it every day I’ve been working for the past 10 years.During the conversation he called it "Paul Thomas Anderson's 'The Master'" which was cute. Wonder if he knows PTA is a mutual admirer?
"You're into what you're into. And people can be into a lot of different things. It's funny too - when you meet people like Maya Rudolph is with Paul Thomas Anderson and Paul Thomas Anderson hangs out at SNL a lot. And I'm a huge, huge fan of his movies. But when we talk about movies we talk about like, 'Chud.' You know? Or we talk about how we both saw a double-feature of 'Darkman' and 'My Blue Heaven.' And he's goes, 'I saw that double-feature!' And I was like, 'Yeah, I went into 'Darkman' and then snuck into 'My Blue Heaven'.' He goes, 'They came out the same week and.. [trails off]' You know what I mean? Those are the things you're kinda into.""My Blue Heaven" and "Darkman" are both available from Netflix if you'd like to recreate your own double-feature. Comedian Patton Oswalt spoke to Onion AV Club about his Random Roles and gave the following hilarious anecdote about appearing in "Magnolia."
Magnolia (1999)—“Delmer Darion”Sounds about right. And finally there will be a PTA Retrospective in London at the Prince Charles Theatre starting January 23 and showing all of his films (bar "The Master" which you can now pre-order in the U.S. on DVD/Blu).
PO: Delmer Darion. God. I was doing a show one night, and I went back in the kitchen and was hanging out, and Paul Thomas Anderson was there. We were just talking, and he was like, “I’m doing this movie if you want a part in it.” I said, “Yeah, sure.” So they called me the next day and said I needed to come in to be fitted for a wetsuit. I said, “Can I see the screenplay first?” And they were like, “Nope.” So I went in and got this custom wetsuit made, and they gave me two pages of the script and flew me to Reno. We shot this scene and then hung out all night drinking. And a week later, we were shooting and I was in the wetsuit. It was so hot to the point where I wasn’t even sweating anymore. And Paul was dumping bottles of water on my head to keep me from passing out and I was like, “Paul, what are we doing?” He said, “I can’t say right now, but I’ll just say that you are the first frog that falls out of the sky.” And I went, “Okay.” So that’s what working with PTA is like.
“Paul Thomas Anderson was getting ready to make the Master and he called me and we met. And we talked and we ended up meeting for coffee. We didn’t talk about the Master but I met him to chat. And then he kept calling me and he wanted to talk and talk but I didn’t know what he wanted to talk about because we’d always just kind of bulls— on the phone. So then when he started talking about the role he said ‘Do you feel like you can do this?’ And I said ‘Yeah, totally. Look, I think you’re like the best American director. I feel confident. I know I can do this.’ And he said to me ‘But I want this to scare you. I want this role, going on this journey to scare you.’ And I was like ‘Scare?! I know I can do it.” Franco now had the laughing audience in the Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental ballroom in the palm of his hand. “And so, incredible movie, needless to say I didn’t get the part. I guess I wasn’t scared enough or something, or whatever reason I didn’t get it. And then when I saw Joaquin in that movie I realized ‘Oh, he wanted me to like lose my mind.’ And so I guess that’s just to say I usually don’t get scared of roles.
MA: Is there an old classic that you think is essential viewing?If you haven't seen it or think it's time for another look, the film is available on DVD (but not Blu-ray) and can be purchased at Amazon (or streamed) and is also available from Netflix. You can Check out all PTA's DVD Picks here.
PTA: That's a long list, too. Something that may be off the beaten track. I don't know if this is a classic or essential but I was thinking of a film yesterday that just popped into my head that I haven't seen in a few. Breaking Away. Does anyone remember that film ?
MA: Paul Dooley.
PTA: That's right. Paul Dooley. And Dennis Quaid. Jackie Earle Haley. I think Peter Yates made that film. And, God, what a great film. What a terrific film. That popped into my mind for whatever reason the other day. Yeah, I was thinking about it because the son comes out and the Italians have just made him crash. And he comes and he's crying and Paul Dooley says, "What's the matter? Did you lose your wallet?" And it made me laugh out loud walking down the street.
MA: Great movie.
"The hardest thing is just trying to find how to take 400 great pages and turn it into ideally 110, maybe 120 script pages. And it's just difficult to do. There's no shortage of great things on every paragraph and every page. So, it's a very uptown problem to have. It's not like, 'Oh God, what am I going to do with this turd?' It's just not that at all. It's like somebody dumped bags of gold in front of me and I can only take so much with me. What do I do?"On why wanted to adapt Pynchon...
"I've always loved his work, his books are just dynamite to me. [He] was always a big influence, [his books are] filled with so much humor and so much craziness and thoughtfulness. Somewhere between fart jokes and kinky sex and just such humanity and delicateness. That was just stuff that I gobbled up, his books. So this is one that, I dunno, we'll try. We'll see."And if he's adapting the film with any actors in mind...
"Yeah but I can't quite put my finger on it and I wouldn't want to name names out loud or anything to jinx it or something like that. But they're such well-drawn characters it's going to be really fun to go and try to do that. Hopefully soon."You can listen to the entire thing OnDemand if you're a Sirius subscriber and if you're not you can sign up for a free trial at their site. We're gonna try to get a transcription up soon so reach out if you'd like to help out with that. Have a good weekend everyone!
