While his films have often been hilariously, if intermittently funny, Paul Thomas Anderson has yet to do a full-on comedy, unless you count the slapstick farce that was There Will Be Blood. (“Golly, this oil sure is slippery! Whoaaaa!”—Daniel Day-Lewis for three hours.) But the director seems to be harboring a not-so-secret yearning to try his hand at making you laugh without ever pausing to unsettle you or make you sad, telling Moviehole, “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 fucking bad.”
Setting aside for the moment the fact that, no, some movies that are big hits absolutely are fucking bad, or the fact that just about every attempt to “make a film like Airplane!” has resulted in spoofs so dire, they make you want to pull a Bill Macy in Boogie Nights, obviously there’s plenty of reason to give Anderson the benefit of the doubt that he could also manage a laugh riot if he wanted to. Though he does, of course, have to write it first—something he says he’ll do “soon hopefully. It sounds daunting.” In the meantime, you’ll just have to make do with his upcoming adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s loosely funny Inherent Vice, or looping The Master’s fart scene over and over. [via The Playlist]