Update: The Wrap report that Martin Short and Jena Malone have also joined the cast.
It’s lost to the mists of time now, but when the project first emerged, there was talk that Reese Witherspoon was going to appear in Paul Thomas Anderson‘s “The Master,” as Peggy, the manipulative wife of Lancaster Dodd. For whatever reason (let’s hope it wasn’t a scheduling conflict with “This Means War“), it didn’t come to pass (Amy Adams took the role), but it seems like Witherspoon and PTA are still mutual admirers, as Deadline bring news that the actress has just signed on to the director’s new project, “Inherent Vice.”
The actress — who’s had a flurry of activity of late, after making tabloid headlines for her recent arrest — joins Joaquin Phoenix, Benicio Del Toro, Owen Wilson and Kevin J Anderson as the signed cast so far. There’s no confirmation as to who she’ll playing, but our guess is that she’ll be Shasta Fay Hepworth, the ex girlfriend of Doc Sportello (Phoenix), who sets the plot in motion, though she could also be Hope Harlingen, the supposed widow of missing musician Coy. It’s also a “Walk The Line” reunion of sorts as Phoenix and Reese both took their excellent chemistry all the way to the Oscars (she won, he got nominated).
Anyway, it’s good news for Witherspoon, who’s course-correcting after a series of disappointments by working with the likes of Jeff Nichols (on current sleeper hit “Mud,”) Atom Egoyan (on “Devil’s Knot“) and PTA. Filming gets underway any day now, and Warner Bros will be releasing the picture, hopefully some time in 2014.