"Where’s the trailer!?" cries out a certain segment of impatient Paul Thomas Anderson fans on social media. These exclamations are usually followed by jabs at Warner Bros. marketing department claiming they have no idea what they are doing. But in fact, the opposite is true. Warner Bros. knows exactly what they’re doing.
First of all, while the film has a New York Film Festival premiere coming up soon (and yeah, we’d wager a teaser of some kind will drop by then), folks have to remember that "Inherent Vice" doesn’t go into wide release until January. And given that it’s a quirky period piece and an adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel, the film is going to require a particular brand of marketing to reach beyond the already niche PTA fans who will show up on opening day with or without a trailer. And Warner Bros. does have other movies arriving in theaters before "Inherent Vice" is released widely, including "The Judge," "The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies," and "Horrible Bosses 2" (the studio is additionally handling Christopher Nolan‘s "Interstellar" internationally). So just be cool for the moment, everyone.
Until then, a new image has arrived, with the first look of Reese Witherspoon as Penny Kimball in the film, alongside Joaquin Phoenix‘s Doc Sportello. If there was is an Oscar for best hair, this movie would flatten any competitors.
"Inherent Vice" opens in limited release on December 12th, and goes wide on January 9th. [LA Times]