Robert Downey Jr can hammy it up in as many Sherlock Holmes mysteries & Oz based fantasies and play Tony Stark until he turns blue in the face for all I care - if he accepts the advances for him to team with
Paul Thomas Anderson as a private eye in a 60's psychedelic noir that apparently has a hint of
The Big Lebowski - he gets a free pass from me for the next five years. Seriously. After a tough 2010 where Anderson publically failed to get his $35 million anti-Scientology movie
The Master off the ground with
Phillip Seymour Hoffman and
Jeremy Renner (though the studio were happy to chuck $80+ million, mostly on wages for
Little Fockers - that statement alone, should make you depressed about the current state of cinema), PTA has moved on for the time being - his mindset according to
Vulture is now fixated on an adaptation of the 384 page
Thomas Pynchon tome
Inherent Vice. The novel, about "Larry "Doc" Sportello, a pothead private eye wandering through the Summer (and winter) of Love in 1969 Los Angeles" - may very well be Anderson's next film. It's Anderson's agency CAA, presumably with Anderson's support, that is harassing Downey Jr about starring - though of course he's busy making more money than the gross of small countries right now and won't be free for around 12 months. But that's probably not a bad thing as Anderson, a methodical craftsmen, probably won't be close to filming until then. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjWKPdDk0_U Familiar territory for Downey Jr as his noir love-letter
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and for PTA, well, we would follow him into any genre, right?