Most of Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies are pretty funny, especially Boogie Nights and The Master – and even mopey Magnolia had that Tom Cruise sequence – but being that PTA’s special lady is Maya Rudolph, people are always asking him if he’ll do more comedy like her. Yeesh, can’t a man have a career of his own in Obama’s ‘Murka? In any case, in a recent interview with Moviehole, PTA was enthusiastic about the idea of someday doing a “full-blown comedy.” Which, as we all know, is a disease caused by an unchecked chuckle virus.
You’re married to Bridesmaids star Maya Rudolph. Any chance we’ll see a PTA comedy in the near future?
You mean like full-blown comedy? Soon hopefully. I have to write it. It sounds daunting. [laughter]
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. Movies that are that big a hit are never f*cking 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.
Of course, it’s all very hypothetical at this stage, since he’s scheduled to adapt Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice next. He describes his take on Inherent Vice as “like a Cheech and Chong movie” by the way, so I wouldn’t be surprised if his idea of “full-blown comedy” edges more toward Pynchon than Seth MacFarlane (not that there’s anything wrong with that, I laughed harder during The Master than I did during The Dictator). Anyway, I never saw Ted, so I can’t tell you whether it sucked or not, but Paul Thomas Anderson talking about loving Ted seems just a little bit like Gwyneth Paltrow making a big show of eating at McDonald’s. Yeah, yeah, we get it, you’re just a regular Charlie Cheesehead like the rest of us hump-necked fart breathers. Gabba gabba, we accept you…