We have already seen an impressive number of truly amazing films come out so far in 2014, from Wes Anderson's magnificent and hilarious The Grand Budapest Hotel to Joe and Anthony Russo's fantastic and action-packed Captain America: The Winter Solider. But there are still many months left to go this year, and it looks like what could be two of the best films of the year will be premiering at the New York Film Festival. Last week we learned that David Fincher's Gone Girl would be opening the annual event, and now a new report has revealed yet another high-profile title will be making its debut.
According to Variety, Paul Thomas Anderson's long-awaited adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice will be the centerpiece gala at the 52nd annual New York Film Festival. While the Gone Girl premiere will be rather late in that movie's development schedule (debuting on September 26th and hitting theaters on October 3rd), the first look at Anderson's latest will be coming months before its release - which is set for release on December 12th.
Set in Los Angeles in the 1970s, Inherent Vice stars The Master's Joaquin Phoenix as Larry "Doc" Sportello, a pothead private detective who gets roped into a case involving his ex-girlfriend - who winds up going missing herself. The truly outstanding ensemble supporting cast includes Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Jena Malone, Katherine Waterson, Joanna Newsom and Benicio Del Toro. Paul Thomas Anderson began working on the film back in 2010 - with Robert Downey Jr. attached to star.
Much like David Fincher - who also had The Social Network show at the New York Film Festival - Anderson also has a positive history with the event. The director premiered Boogie Nights at the festival back in 1997, and he followed that with Punch Drunk Love in 2002. He has since made There Will Be Blood and The Master, the former showing up at Fantastic Fest 2007 and the latter going to Venice in 2012.
Anderson started shooting the movie all the way back in May of last year, and has been on our "most anticipated upcoming projects" ever since. The NYFF premiere suggests that Warner Bros. has some great confidence in the film, and we can likely expect it to be a serious awards contender when we start getting towards the end of the year. We have been waiting for what feels like forever for Inherent Vice, and this news is a refreshing reminder that the movie will be here before we know it.
