I wonder if PTA is still interested in another Pynchon adaptation...and something in television. One of the big questions about the rest of his career, I think, is if he'll make the leap into television and if we've actually already begun seeing the signs pointing toward that eventuality.
Sometimes, he'll say things in interviews where I feel like it's a hint, but he phrases it in such a way that I'm never really sure. Like, remember how he said (can't recall the exact wording) "it'd be nice" if they put Hard Eight on Criterion? It seems super likely like that those discussions have already taken place, so perhaps he's being a bit coy there...but who knows?
Then he said, during the IV press tour, that he hoped someone would do a miniseries based on Mason & Dixon and put it on A&E or whatever. He phrased it like he wanted someone else to do it, but come on, he surely wants to helm that himself...perhaps for HBO or Netflix? I really hope the commercial results of Inherent Vice haven't dissuaded him now. And then there are those recent comments about doing a Netflix series or something. He doesn't rule it out; he seems at least mildly intrigued by the idea. The Phantom Thread press tour included comments about him watching the new season of Twin Peaks, considerable praise for several BBC shows...
I mean, OK, everyone watches TV, so those last few examples might be whatever, but maybe he's preparing himself for work in another medium. Maybe he's thinking about how it's been done well elsewhere. We know he loves his research. He's been a film guy for so long, so maybe he's thinking about how to make a serialized television show really crackle in the best way.
So, yeah, that's what I've been wondering for a while: Is he thinking about transiting into TV at one point (not permanently, of course)? Is he still thinking about adapting Mason & Dixon? That novel is more important to him than IV, isn't it? He said it was his favourite Pynchon book.
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Rambling stuff aside, I've also been thinking about which of his films I'd want to see in mini-series form...or even as a multiple season thing. It's not that I think this will or even should happen, but I'm proposing a hypothetical scenario. If you had to pick just one of his films to transform into a television show, which would you pick?
I think I'd choose The Master because seeing a guy like Dodd develop over two or three seasons would be absolutely amazing...just in terms of, among other things, the different people he could meet and ostensibly help, and the vagabond/travelling aspect (house to house, shore to shore). You could easily wring a truly great and varied show out of that truly great and varied film.
