Is Paul Thomas Anderson’s Mysterious New Movie an Adaptation of Pynchon’s ‘Vineland’?

I just finished talking to journalist Jeff Sneider about the latest Paul Thomas Anderson rumors.

It sounds like PTA is developing multiple projects at the moment. The main one is the father/daughter story that Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to that is said to feature a subplot about the GOP and martial arts.

The other project is a film about veterans in their 50s. There aren’t any further details about either of these projects, but one of them is set to shoot this summer. Here’s what we know and what’s been rumored…

Back in late November, PTA’s producer and casting director, Cassandra Kulukundis, posted a casting call that was looking for a “teenage girl who excels at Martial Arts”.

According to Kulukundis’ casting call, production would start this July in and around Los Angeles.

Now, this begs me to ask a question that’s been circulating around circles for a few years now: Is he finally adapting Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland”?

As I was talking to Sneider, and he explained to me what he knew about the film, it all of a sudden popped in my head: “Wait, this sounds like Vineland!”

PTA has mentioned the novel numerous times over the years, but in a 2014 Time Out interview he even insinuated that he tried to script it: “I'd wanted to adapt “Vineland”, but I never had the courage.”

Here’s the kicker: the stories in Pynchon’s novel line up eerily well with what’s been rumored. There’s a father/daughter storyline, Reagan’s GOP plays a big role and there’s even ninjas/martial arts.

One of the many characters in the novel is a woman by the name of DL Chastain, the daughter of an Army career man who has been trained in the martial arts by a Japanese master, and was once tried as an assassin. She takes Prairie, the main character (supposedly DiCaprio’s daughter) under her wing and initiates her to a women’s ninja collective.

A few more PTA quotes about Pynchon’s novel:

“I read Vineland a couple of months ago, and there were sections where I felt like I was just floating. I got a high out of it.” — Rolling Stone

“There’s a stack of books I haven’t read yet, and yet I find myself constantly re-reading “Vineland.” It’s borderline pathological.” — IndieWire

He already adapted Pynchon’s “Inherent Vice” into a polarizing 2014 film and has been citing the author’s many novels for decades. There’s no reason to brush off the theory that he’d want to adapt Pynchon again.

Am I onto something here?