Throughout the entire time I’ve been writing about the coming of Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Inherent Vice I don’t believe I’ve read about anyone being concerned over Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon‘s novel. So, I’m not sure how much it will bother people to learn Anderson “wrote an outrageous new ending for the film that deviates significantly from the novel.” This according to a New York Times piece featuring an interview with Anderson and members of the case and it seeks to answer the question: Did Pynchon approve of these changes?
[amz asin=”B005CRQ3H0″ size=”small”]”I know that [Anderson and Pynchon] talked a lot,” star Joaquin Phoenix told the Times. “Sometimes, he’d say, ‘Oh, I talked to Pynchon last night, and we were talking, he thought maybe it could be like this or like that.’ It was pretty amazing, because it seemed like he was very active in the process through Paul. It seemed like they talked often and he would make suggestions or talk about how to condense three scenes into one.”
Anderson, however, said, “Joaquin doesn’t know what he’s talking about anyway!” Times writer Logan Hill says he said it “teasingly”… whatever that means.
As for the film’s tone, Anderson says he’s going for something akin to Police Squad! and Top Secret! saying, “We tried hard to imitate or rip off the Zucker brothers’ style of gags so the film can feel like the book feels: just packed with stuff. And fun.”
That said, he also sees it as a noir and rewatched films such as The Long Goodbye, Kiss Me Deadly and The Big Sleep after wondering if there’d be an issue with the drug-ridden novel’s implausible plot. It didn’t bother him for long, “North by Northwest?” he said. “Tell me again how he gets to the middle of the field with a plane after him? I can’t. How does he get to Mount Rushmore? I don’t know, but it’s great.”
Inherent Vice hits theaters on December 12, but it will be playing the New York Film Festival next week for a bunch of lucky, lucky viewers. Right about now I’m wishing I lived in the Big Apple
