Paul Thomas Anderson wrote his 2002 romance “Punch-Drunk Love” as a star vehicle for Adam Sandler, who at that point was best known for broad comedies like “The Waterboy,” “Big Daddy,” and “Little Nicky.” Anderson was confident Sandler could pull off the more dramatic overtones of the “Punch-Drunk Love” script, but the filmmaker’s longtime producer JoAnne Sellar was less sure at first. Sellar admits in Adam Nayman’s book “Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks” that casting Sandler originally confused her.

“After ‘Magnolia’ [Paul] wanted to make a really short movie,” Sellar said. “That was the first thing I remember him saying. But yeah, he wrote it for Sandler. He was a huge Sandler fan, and I was just befuddled. I just didn’t get the whole Adam Sandler thing at that stage. I mean, the ‘Saturday Night Live’ stuff, yes, but the movies that Adam had done weren’t for me. As...