When I spoke to him recently for “The Master”, Paul Thomas Anderson hinted that a full-blown comedy might be in his future. Ostensibly nudged to do something funny at the request of his wife, comedienne Maya Rudolph (“Bridesmaids”), Anderson acknowledged that a genre switch was a long-time coming, and he was very keen, but that it was going to take him quite a while to write a comedy. Jokey flicks just don’t come easy to him, it seems.

While he tinkers over funnies, Anderson’s putting the moves on a new feature “Inherent Vice”, based on the detective novel by Thomas Pynchon. Anderson’s tried to get it up before, but the success of “The Master” looks to have made those finicky financing issues a little easier to overcome now. As such, he’s hoping to start filming “Vice” next year.

Here’s what The New York Times has :

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.”

At one stage Robert Downey Jr was circling the lead role; not sure if that’s still the case.

Here’s the sleeve synopsis of Pynchon’s “Inherent Vice” via Amazon :

Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon- private eye Doc Sportello surfaces, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era

In this lively yarn, Thomas Pynchon, working in an unaccustomed genre that is at once exciting and accessible, provides a classic illustration of the principle that if you can remember the sixties, you weren’t there.

It’s been a while since Doc Sportello has seen his ex- girlfriend. Suddenly she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. It’s the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that “love” is another of those words going around at the moment, like “trip” or “groovy,” except that this one usually leads to trouble. Undeniably one of the most influential writers at work today, Pynchon has penned another unforgettable book.