Paul Thomas Anderson has delved into his big book of casting and pulled out a female lead for his adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice. It's Katherine Waterston, a new face to most, but, as daughter of Sam Waterston, hardly a new name. She's appeared in Taking Woodstock and Michael Clayton - you may have also spotted her dealing with a shoplifting Frank Langella in Robot & Frank - but **Vice **offers a breakthrough role and the chance to work with the actors' darling, PTA.
Waterston will play Shasta Fay, the ex-girlfriend of Joaquin Phoenix's P.I. Larry "Doc" Sportello. He's a smoked-out Philip Marlowe whose beat, Manson-era LA, provides the backdrop to a 1970s Californian detective story that sees him helping Fay with an intriguing and ever-so-complicated, shaggy-dog-story of a case involving infidelity, mental institutions and policemen called "Bigfoot".
The actress joins an Oscar-ladden and eclectic cast that already features Josh Brolin, Joaquin Phoenix, Benicio del Toro, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Martin Short and Jena Malone. Sean Penn is rumoured to be joining the ensemble.
The shoot kicks off this summer with Warner Bros. providing the funding. Expect to see Inherent Vice some time in mid-2014.