Robert Downey Jr in Pynchon’s Inherent Vice?

Robert Downey Jr. will be spending this fall filming Inherent Vice, says The Hollywood Reporter. The film, to be directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood), is based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon. Downey signed on after dropping out of Oz, the Great and Powerful.

Downey’s character, Larry “Doc” Sportello, is a private investigator and pothead who investigates a series of mysteries in Los Angeles in 1969 against the backdrop of the Manson Family trials. Presumably Downey will not be going method for this role.

This project adds to Downey’s already busy schedule. He will shortly begin filming The Avengers and Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows comes out this December. I’m still holding out for his doppelganger romantic comedy with Javier Bardem and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Make it happen, Hollywood.