Inherent Vice to be distributed and sponsored by Warner Bros.

Warner Bros., basking in the success of their latest Argo, has acquired distribution rights to another big project with significant substance, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice. The project will also be financed by the same production company. The movie will feature Joaquin Phoenix in the major role.

The film is an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s detective novel by the same name. Set in the 60s’ Los Angeles, the story revolves around the life of drug-addicted detective Larry “Doc” Sportello as he looks into the kidnapping case of a girl. According to the New York Times, this is “a simple shaggy dog detective story”, in variation with Pynchon’s usual complicated storylines.

This is the first time Warner Bros. has come into collaboration with Anderson, who has not given any major release after 2002-film Punch-Drunk Love. Though his previous producer New Line is not sure to take a part in this production, it has been confirmed that Annapurna Pictures, which financed and produced Anderson’s last project The Master, will not be a partner in the project.