World premiere of Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Inherent Vice' to screen as NYFF centerpiece

NEW YORK -- The world premiere of Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice will screen as the Centerpiece of the upcoming 52nd New York Film Festival. Starring Oscar nominees Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin as well as Academy Award winners Reese Witherspoon and Benicio Del Toro along with Owen Wilson, Martin Short, Jena Malone, Joanna Newsom, and newcomer Katherine Waterston, the film is the first screen adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel.

The selection will serve as Anderson's third time at NYFF, following Boogie Nights in 1997 and Punch-Drunk Love in 2002.

Phoenix starred in two films at last year's NYFF: James Gray's The Immigrant and the Closing Night world premiere of Spike Jonze's Her.

Warner Bros. will open Inherent Vice in select runs beginning December 12 before going wide January 9, 2015. Set in Los Angeles in the 1970s, the film centers on drug-fueled detective Larry "Doc" Sportello who investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend. Anderson directed the film from his own screenplay, based on Pynchon's novel.

"Every new Paul Thomas Anderson movie is an event, an experience-when the lights come up, you feel like you've been somewhere, and come back with your mind altered," said New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair, Kent Jones. "Inherent Vice is a journey through the past, bringing the texture of the early '70s SoCal drug culture back to full-blown life. It's a wildly funny, deeply soulful, richly detailed, and altogether stunning movie."

JoAnne Sellar, Daniel Lupi, and Anderson produced the film, with Scott Rudin and Adam Somner serving as executive producers.

Last year's NYFF Centerpiece was the world premiere of Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

For more information on the festival, visit http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2014.