Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, One Battle After Another, draws loose inspiration from Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, while forging a unique story that departs significantly from the book’s actual text. Anderson’s adaptation process, spanning two decades, reflects his intent to craft a distinct narrative, infused with elements that resonated personally rather than strictly following Pynchon’s original work. With the film premiering this month, Anderson’s approach to the Paul Thomas Anderson Vineland adaptation has sparked considerable interest for how radically it differs from his earlier Pynchon adaptation, Inherent Vice.
Combining Long-Held Ideas with Pynchon’s Framework
According to Anderson, the project began about 20 years ago, when he aimed to create a desert-set action car-chase movie. Over the years, various ideas remained with him.
“I started working on this story 20 years ago with the goal of writing an action car-chase movie, and I returned to it every two or three years,”
Anderson explained. He simultaneously considered adapting Pynchon’s Vineland—a novel about the 1960s, penned in the 1980s—and was also thinking about creating a story centered around a female revolutionary. These ideas interwove over time.
“Really for 20 years I had been pulling on all these different threads, and in a way, none of them ever left me,”
Anderson said.
Adapting Vineland as it stood proved challenging, leading Anderson to selectively incorporate parts that resonated with him.
“Realistically, for me, Vineland was going to be hard to adapt. Instead, I stole the parts that really resonated with me and started putting all these ideas together. With [Pynchon’s] blessing,”
Anderson revealed, confirming a rare and direct connection with the reclusive author. This blessing came as Pynchon prepared to release his new novel, Shadow Ticket, shortly after Anderson’s movie hit theaters.
The Creative Process and Narrative Evolution
During a recent SAG Q&A, Anderson opened up about the lengthy creative process behind the film, describing it as
“a bunch of different sparks spread about over a lot of many different years.”
The initial spark, he said, was the desire to make an action-adventure story set in the desert featuring a car chase.
“That’s just the sort of broad strokes, like, ‘Oh, that wouldn’t that be fun to do one day?’”
he remarked. One early story idea revolved around a bounty hunter who performed dangerous tasks for unsavory clients but ultimately sought change. This concept lingered with him for some time.
Anderson’s love for Pynchon’s Vineland, having already adapted another Pynchon novel in Inherent Vice, helped anchor the film’s themes. He explained,
“The central premise there is a central premise that we’ve stolen of what happens when revolutionaries scatter, and what happens when one of them––in the book, his name is Zoyd––ends up in the Northern California woods with a daughter to raise and the past comes back to haunt them.”
Unlike Inherent Vice, which he treated with near-verbatim use of Pynchon’s text, Anderson took a more freeform approach for this film.
“Rather than be respectful of the book, like I did with Inherent Vice, I just kind of took what I needed and combined some of these other stories and just started running with it over the years and accumulating material and thinking about [this cast] to put in the story, and it all just sort of started to come together quite strongly about seven or eight years ago,”
he shared.
Finding the Right Cast and Timing for Production
The film’s progress was also shaped by casting challenges, particularly for the role of Willa, a vital character in the story. Anderson credited casting director Cassandra Kulukundis for helping find the perfect actress.
“If I’m honest, [casting director] Cassandra [Kulukundis] and I thought the most important part was finding somebody to play Willa,”
he said. Production was delayed until the right actress was found, leading Anderson to pause work and focus on other projects such as Licorice Pizza. Reflecting on this, he stated,
“Absent of finding somebody to play Willa at that time, we just kind of waited, made Licorice Pizza, and then getting back up again, finding the right Willa made it feel like it was really time to make a movie… this movie was waiting for Chase [Infiniti], honestly. Just like it took Leo and I 25 years to work together, I feel like that was supposed to happen the way it was supposed to happen.”
One Battle After Another’s Impact and Anticipation
With the release of One Battle After Another imminent, early praise highlights its bold, intense portrayal of America’s troubled undercurrents, blending humor with a sense of danger. Writer Jordan Raup described the film as
“a blisteringly intense, unnervingly hilarious thrill ride through the rot of America’s tyrannical, xenophobic underbelly,”
noting how Anderson’s adaptation
“barely lifts a sentence from Vineland to create a world all his own, both frighteningly recognizable and surprisingly tender.”
Anderson’s approach to the Paul Thomas Anderson Vineland adaptation signals a distinctive creative path in adapting Pynchon’s work, balancing respect for the source with bold reinterpretation. The film’s release marks a significant moment not only for Anderson’s career but also for audiences eager to see how Pynchon’s elusive narratives can be transformed on screen. As the film begins its theatrical run, it is poised to influence future adaptations of complex literary works, proving that radical reinvention can coexist with authorial approval.
