Probably the oddest nugget of auteur/comedy movie trivia to come along since it was revealed that Terrence Malick is a "Zoolander" fan, "The Master" helmer Paul Thomas Anderson reveals he's partial to a bawdy good romp from time to time. And hell, maybe one day he'll just get out there and make is own R-rated filth fest.
"I’d like to make a film like 'Airplane.' That never gets old. Or 'Ted.' It was a big hit. Why? Because it’s great," he enthused to Moviehole. "Movies that are that big a hit are never fucking bad. I mean, there’s no such… You know, people aren’t that stupid, that movie’s a hit because it’s hilarious. I hope [Seth MacFarlane] makes another film."
Certainly, Anderson's films have all contained humor to one degree or another ("The Master" even manages a fart joke), but would you want him to do a full on, balls out, R-rated comedy? Well, he would like to do it. "Soon hopefully. I have to write it. It sounds daunting," he laughed. But one thing you most likely will never seem to do is helm an action movie.
"Action films take a lot of time and they’re really fun to watch and to edit together, but they’re not that much fun to make. I mean, and I only say that from the experience that I’ve had doing anything that is remotely kinda action oriented, like the frog scene in 'Magnolia' or some of the bits in 'There Will be Blood,' that it’s so time consuming, waiting for somebody to blow up a window," he shared. "I don’t know, it doesn’t float my boat as much as the of the other stuff."
So there you have it — Comedy 1, Action Movies 0. The petition for a Joaquin Phoenix-led, hard R comedy directed by PTA starts here…
coke-addled no talent freak
People don't forget about Punch Drunk Love shows apparently a comedy genre.
Its so refreshing to hear a director like PTA talk about how he liked Ted. Most of these dudes are real pretentious and only talk about movies like Battleship Potemkin and French New Wave stuff which is great, but any day of the week I would rather watch Airplane! or an action movie like T2: Judgement Day. I really love PTA, especially Boogie Nights and Magnolia and I hope he moves away from more "pretentious" stuff (although hes no where near as bad as a lot of his contemporaries) like There Will Be Blood and The Master and goes back to his Boogie Nights roots. I am really looking forward to Inherent Vice, especially if Downey Jr. is playing Doc. I would love to see him move into a strait comedy also, PTA seems to be one of those guys who is going to try a lot of different genre types by the time his filmography is over. Something like Airplane! with like John C Reilly would be magnificient and especially different, which is something I really respect from a filmmake. PTA is awesome…
I thought The Master WAS a comedy? I laughed during every scene (and apparently Phoenix did too, according to Playlist), which is more than I can say for Ted.
If Robert Downey Jr. or Jim Carrey plays Sportello, Inherent Vice will be PTA's highest grossing(and, of course, funniest) film.
i could see a pta comedy being very coen brothers-esque
All of his movies s far have been pretty funny. Inherent Vice has the potential to be the most straightforward comedy vehicle, it's also the perfect movie for him to do right nowi think. doc Sportello is a very PTAesque character, as is Tyrone Slothrop, the titular hero of Gravitys Rainbow, whose behavior bears more than a passing resemblance to Freddy Quell. Either way I can't wait to see what he does with it! There's some really out there hallucinatory scenes in the book that I wonder what he'll do with and some interesting set pieces too
Inherent Vice is going to be a comedy. A post-modern stoner comedy!
PTA has to direct a comedy! With his skill and dark sense of humor that permeates most of his films, it'll almost definitely go down as a classic. He could also finally achieve the wide success he needs to support whatever projects he desires. It's a win-win situation!
Are you really to the point now where you don't even link back to the original content? It's bad enough that you make your living via content theft, but not even linking back is a new low.
And to be clear, I'm not associated with that movie site or any other.