Sunday, February 20, 2011 at 4:00PM After Leaving 'Oz," Downey, Jr. Eyes Vaguely Familiar Territory
Nothing makes me happier than being secure in the knowledge that Robert Downey, Jr. is keeping himself busy. He had me worried for a second there, after dropping out of Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful, that he might be taking some time off, cruelly denying us his witticisms in favor of, well, being less busy.
Downey "investigates" the ladies.
But news today has calmed my Downey-filled nerves; the charmer is said to be eyeing the lead role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice, based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon, and it’s a more straight-forward version of a part we’ve seen him play before.
Inherent Vice tells the story of a Private Investigator in the late 60’s, who’s got a hankering for weed, though it doesn’t preclude him from immersing himself in the investigation of a series of strange events. The entire story uses the Manson Family ‘s Tate/LaBianca murders of 1969 and the subsequent trial to form its dark backdrop.
Downey is no stranger to playing a P.I.; he starred in 2003’s The Singing Detective, in 2009 as the masterful Sherlock Holmes, and most aptly in Shane Black’s brilliant Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, where he played a bumbling New York thief, forced into trailing (and becoming) a real-life investigator as preparation for an acting role. While Kiss Kiss is an excellent film in more ways than are countable, Inherent Vice would see Downey committing more fully to the character of a down-and-out sleuth. And since everyone’s going to say it anyway, it certainly doesn’t hurt that the man has some personal experience as a drug user, be it a bit more intense than the occasional joint.
Having Anderson on board to direct isn’t too terrible either. His last film was 2007’s There Will Be Blood, and he’s also produced Boogie Nights, Punch-Drunk Love, and Magnolia, arguably giving him one of the better resumes out there in Director-Land. Anderson always manages to get top-notch performances out of his actors, and with someone as talented as Downey on board, Inherent Vice should be another success for the filmmaker.
Though I was sad to see Downey pull out of Oz, that title role could have ended up reading a bit too campy for the actor, who’s currently finishing up on the Sherlock Holmes sequel, and throwing a hefty bit of camp into the eponymous hero for the second time. Vice will be a good opportunity for Downey to get a bit more serious, and he’s looking to get into it just after he completes filming on another epic, the long-awaited Avengers pcture.
Seeing Downey play a nice, complex role will be most welcome, assuming Anderson does, in fact, want him on the project. Considering that Anderson’s last leading-man was multi-award-winning Daniel Day-Lewis, Downey’ll have some big shoes to fill. But he’s up to the challenge, and he’ll likely do it with class, skill, and yes, a great deal of charm.
Inherent Vice is due to start filming this Fall, with a release in 2014.
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