![Paul Thomas Anderson Had A Bounty Hunter With A Conscience Film That Eventually Evolved Into ‘One Battle After Another’ [Ned]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/09080753/pta-bounty-hunter-film.jpg "Paul Thomas Anderson Had A Bounty Hunter With A Conscience Film That Eventually Evolved Into ‘One Battle After Another’ [Ned]")
Awards-season frontrunner “One Battle After Another” is the second time Paul Thomas Anderson has adapted a Thomas Pynchon novel for the big screen; he did it first in 2014 with “Inherent Vice,” and his latest film adapts Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland.” But a “Vineland” adaptation wasn’t what Anderson originally had in mind when he first conceived “One Battle After Another.” Instead, the project evolved from a very different set-up, still evident in the final product, with Pynchon’s source material arriving in later creative stages.
READ MORE: ‘One Battle After Another’ Wins Best Film From National Society Of Film Critics
Anderson revealed how he sutured all those disparate parts into one screenplay in a talk the film’s cast gave after a recent SAG screening of “One Battle After Another” in LA. “Well, a bunch of different sparks spread about over a lot of many different years,” the director said of the film’s origins. “But the very, very first spark was to, you know, really simply want to make a kind of action-adventure film in the desert with car chases. That’s just a sort of broad stroke. Like, oh, wouldn’t that be fun to do one day, you know? And then that idea is in search of a stronger premise than that.”
That first premise centered on a bounty hunter grown tired of his mercenary tendencies, not dissimilar to the character Eric Schweig plays in the film. “I had a story about a bounty hunter who went around and did bad things for bad folks and then felt like he needed to change his direction,” continued Anderson. “And that kind of stuck around for a while. And then, really, this book “Vineland” by Thomas Pynchon, who I adapted his book “Inherent Vice” a few years back ago, was a story that I loved very much. And a central premise there is a central premise that we’ve stole: you know, what happens when revolutionaries scatter? And what happens when one of them, Bob, in the book, his name is Zoid, ends up in the Northern California woods with a daughter to raise, and the past comes back to haunt them?”
While “Inherent Vice” adhered closely to Pynchon’s original narrative, Anderson knew he wanted the story beats he stole from “Vineland” to play a lot looser. “Rather than be respectful of the book, like I did with “Inherent Vice,” I just kind of took what I needed and combined some of these other stories and just started running with it over the years, and accumulating material, and kept thinking about these guys to put in the story,” the director said about how he cobbled together “One Battle After Another.” “And it all just sort of started to come together quite strongly about seven or eight years ago.”
However, Anderson couldn’t find the right young actress to play Willa, so he put the project on hold and made “Licorice Pizza” in the interim. “And then, if I’m honest, I think Cassandra [Klukundis, his casting director] thought the most important part was finding somebody to play Willa,” said Anderson. “And, absent of finding somebody to play Willa at that time, we just kind of waited and made “Licorice Pizza.” And then getting back up again, finding the right Willa made it feel like it was really time to make the movie.” Of course, Anderson alludes to discovering Chase Infiniti, whose breakthrough performance as Willa has her on the cusp of several awards-season victories and a promising acting career.
While Schweig’s bounty hunter Avanti appears only in the final third of “One Battle After Another,” Anderson’s comments imply how crucial the character was for him while he forged the movie into its final form. Would Avanti be able to buttress an entire story on his own? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s still cool to discover how a minor character carries a heavy creative influence, and just as cool for an unsung actor like Schweig to play the role.
Check out the entire post-SAG screening talk for “One Battle After Another” below.
