Hardly a day goes by when Robert Downey Jrs studied mumbles are not attached by some magazine or website to some preposterously over-funded studio project. The one time casualty of fashionable Hollywood excess has- against all received industry knowledge- become one of its most prodigious and profitable- if tediously earnest- stars. Most recently, it has been intimated that he is set to feature in the next film of the much lauded Paul Thomas Anderson, an adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel, Inherent Vice. Excitedly, The Hollywood Reporter confirms that Downey Jr has recently grown serious about starring in the film post-The Avengers and a shoot this fall could be on the cards. The source text for Inherent Vice is a 2009 novel set between 1969 and 1970, and whose protagonist, Doc Sportello, is a washed up stoner detective drawn by events beyond his control into an investigation that implicates former LAPD colleagues. Downey would seem an ideal candidate for such a part, however, in a climate in which he is seemingly linked to all films, only a concrete yes from either the actor or director would seem to satisfy. Let's hope we get official word soon...