After checking out these images from the new Paul Thomas Anderson film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the “Vineland” rumors are not subsiding anytime soon.
Is it absolutely, positively, 100% Vineland? We don’t know, not until we get official confirmation, but my hunch from a few weeks ago was that Thomas Pynchon’s “unfilmable” novel might have been reconceived for contemporary times.
Baded on the available information about the production so far, it’s not really a stretch anymore. The young female/martial arts casting call, the Eureka setting, DiCaprio’s hippied look, the presence of helicopters on-set — it alludes to Pynchon’s maddening vision.
In the image above, DiCaprio looks exactly like you'd imagine Zoyd Wheeler to be. Pynchon described Zoyd in the novel as having a Frank Zappa mustache — which is what DiCaprio is sporting here. He’s scrambling around, outside the grocery store, using a payphone, acting all paranoid.
Tons of footage has emerged from the set including a police car chase and a peculiar store sign that’s titled "Y Mas, Mucho Mas.”. Mucho Maas is a character in “Vineland”. Hey, maybe I’m stretching it here, all were being fed are breadcrumbs, but I’m not the only person speculating that it’s “Vineland.”
The production is currently going by the title “BC Project.” The police cars being used on the set say “Baktin Cross Police Department.” That might be what “BC” stands for.
This wouldn’t be the first time that PTA takes liberties with someone else’s source material. “There Will Be Blood“ was a loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s “Oil.”. He did the same thing with “The Master,” which was also “inspired” by Pynchon’s “V.”
Production on “BC Project” is set go on for a few more months. They’ll be leaving California for Texas and Mexico in the coming weeks.
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