Video: ‘Inherent Vice’ trailer: Thomas Pynchon via Paul Thomas Anderson

Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 novel “Inherent Vice” is one of his most accessible. The story of a stoner private eye in Southern California at the end of the 1960s is part Jim Rockford, part Raymond Chandler and part Cheech & Chong. It’s noir on the beach with hippie styling and doesn’t take itself seriously.

Paul Thomas Anderson has adapted it for the screen -- it’s the first of Pynchon’s novels to be made into a film (he’s only been writing for 50 years). The debut trailer is above.

The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as private investigator Larry “Doc” Sportello, Josh Brolin as cop Bigfoot Bjornsen, Eric Roberts as real estate mogul Mickey Wolfmann, Maya Rudolph as Doc’s assistant Petunia Leeway, Owen Wilson as saxophone player Coy Harlingen, Reese Witherspoon as sometime girlfriend Penny Kimball, and Benicio Del Toro as attorney Sauncho Smilax.

And Pynchon, an elusive, camera-shy author, is rumored to have a cameo in the film.

“Inherent Vice” is debuting at the New York Film Festival this weekend. It’s coming to theaters Dec. 12.

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