Charlize Theron May Sign on for Paul Thomas Andersons Inherent Vice Alongside Robert Downey, Jr.

Posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2013 by Russ Fischer

Thomas Pynchon fans have reason to celebrate this year. The reclusive author (is Pynchons name ever mentioned without the word reclusive?) has announced the imminent publication of a new novel, for one. And his previous novel, Inherent Vice, is the subject of an adaptation effort by none less than Paul Thomas Anderson.

Pynchons novels have never yet been the basis for a major film, though his influence has been felt in small ways in more than a few movies in the past. Inherent Vice will be the first major film based on a Pynchon novel, and it benefits from quite a creative team. Anderson is writing, possibly with the help of Pynchon himself, and Robert Downey Jr. has long been in place as the likely choice to play the central character, burnout detective Doc Sportello.

And now Charlize Theron is reported as a likely addition as well.

Roger Friedman reports that in addition to Downeys continued attachment, Theron is looking like shell sign on, too. Who will she play?

Friedman doesnt specify the potential role for Theron, but there are two obv! ious possibilities. The novels plot involvesShasta Fay Hepworth, former girlfriend of Sportello, who is now dallying with a big-name real estate mogul. She brings Doc into the story, thanks to her concern over plans that the real estate guys wife has hatched with her own lover.

With all that explained (sort of), Theron could be set to play Shasta, but in reality Id expect to see her as the real estate moguls wife, Sloan. That character is pretty much tailor made for Theron.

There are a couple other big female roles in the story, too, but most are too young to make any sense for the actress. Granted, the novel is typically knotted and twisty, in Pynchons trademark style, and so quite a bit of simplification is to be expected. Even Anderson, who has made his own famously knotted and complex films such as Boogie Nights and Magnolia, will probably have to cut and tweak Pynchons story to get it on the screen.

Heres Pynchons own introduction to the novel, originally broadcast a few years ago:

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