Inherent Vice trailer: Paul Thomas Anderson's new film actually looks quite light-hearted

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Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

The first trailer for PTA's adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice has dropped, seeing Joaquin Phoenix playing hapless private detective Doc Sportello.

After two brilliant but incredibly sombre films, There Will Be Blood and The Master, Inherent Vice looks to be a return to a more Boogie Nights style of film for the director, a riotous period piece filled with sight gags he said were inspired by slapstick films like Airplane!.

Owen Wilson, Benicio Del Toro, Martin Short, Jena Malone, Katherine Waterston and Joanna Newsom join Phoenix in the film, which is the first film adaptation of a Pynchon novel (no-one has as yet been so brave as to try).

"I basically just transcribed it so I could look at it like it was a script," he told the New York Times. "It looked like a doorstop. But I can understand this format. As big as it was, it was easier for me to cut down."

"The only thing better than reading Pynchon is rereading Pynchon," he added. "Like, how did I possibly miss that line the first time round?"

The first poster for the movie was also released today:

Inherent Vice premieres at the New York Film Festival on 4 October before hitting US cinemas on 12 December and UK cinemas on 30 January, 2015.