by Ryan Syrek

Happy Friday to ya, folks. Nothing really big percolating this week, so I thought I'd hit you with a goodie that will make at least a few people I know smile ear to ear. Recently, my personal pick for most brilliant writer/director currently above ground, Paul Thomas Anderson (or PTA as his buddies call him...because of his initials, not because he's good at conversations betwixt instructor and parents), had his project loosely based on a skewering of Scientology fall through. Supposedly, it had something to do with a creative block he encountered. I mean, we all know what really happened: PTA flicked on the light in his bathroom to find Tom Cruise in his shower laughing and pointing at him with a knife in his hand. Later, when he went to bed, he rolled over to find Will Smith whispering "Drop the movie" in his ear. At any rate, I was bummed, because I want more PTA as much as Miley Cyrus wants to be thought of erotically.

Cut to today and this news: PTA is possibly doing an adaptation next...and not just any adaptation...a Thomas Pynchon adaptation. For those who are unfamiliar, Pynchon's novels are the ones with perfectly unbent spines you find in someone's library you respect. Why? Because that person is smart enough to TRY Pynchon and was likely brow-beaten into submission after chapter one by the incredibly dense, sprawling prose. Pynchon is fantastic. PTA is fantastic. Thus I find this idea fantastic. Not hyped enough, let's have Pynchon himself hype you up:

Reclusive he may be, but still willing to drop a good voice over. Oh, and did I mention the talk is that Robert Downey Jr may join on? Yeah, because he might. The story is a detective tale set in the drugged-out 1960s...and has borne comparisons to The Big Lebowski. Yeah, so Robert Downey Jr (who was at his best in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) may star in a PTA movie based on a Pynchon novel. Happy friggin' Friday to me!

I pity the fool who don't follow me on Twitter!

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