Surprise. Today it's VINELAND again - this time in an alternate reality The comment section for this is exploding π₯π
Paul Thomas Anderson's Latest Tackles MAGA?
Yesterdayβs piece, via Jeff Sneider, that Paul Thomas Andersonβs latest cost $175 million is making some waves (so is my other piece about Euphoria, and, by the way, that oneβs coming from a very strong source).
An in-the-know journalist is telling me this morning that Andersonβs latest is in fact a reworking of βVineland,β based in an alternate reality America and has Trump/MAGA elements sprinkled to it. Itβs the hippies vs MAGA, they tell me, but thatβs just scratching the surface of what PTA has in store here. Pynchonβs novel was set during the Reagan-era.
Iβm hearing that this one has action movie elements, incorporating the biggest stunts of PTAβs career. Also, Sean Penn is rumored to be playing the head of a white supremacist group who tries to get rid of an interracial child he had in the β60s with Regina Hallβs character. DiCaprio is the adoptive father. It all just sounds completely bonkers.
The supposed MAGA elements would make sense considering that in February 2023 Sneider was hearing that PTAβs latest was a father/daughter story βabout the current GOPβ that might feature as a side characterβ¦ Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene!
Sneider reported that PTA was looking for an actress to play Taylor Greene, adding that this intel came from a very credible source.
PTA has mentioned the novel, βVineland,β numerous times over the years, and in a 2014 Time Out interview even insinuated that he tried to script it: βI'd wanted to adapt βVinelandβ, but I never had the courage. It seemed to be a great way to translate [Pynchon] into a movie.β
Replacing Reagan/Nixon with Trump makes sense. If youβve read the novel then a βcontemporaryβ Vineland could be pulled off. Also, replace the β60s hippies with todayβs ultra-progressives. Obviously, PTA would have to take some major liberties with the source material.
Honestly, all of the intel weβve had about this film is leaning towards this being a VERY loose adaptation of βVinelandβ. Daniel Richtman even confirmed it late last year. The only hesitation I have with all of this is why in the living hell would Warner Bros greenlight a $175 million film, directed by PTA, based on a Thomas Pynchon novel, and go as far as to release it commercially in the summer of 2025, and in IMAX, no less? The entire thing just sounds ABSURD. Itβs the definition of a risky Hollywood endeavor.