Character Poster/Trailer #8 Arrives: Shasta Fay Hepworth

A video posted by Inherent Vice (@inherentvicemovie) on Jan 1, 2015 at 10:07am PST

New TV Spots, Character Poster For "Vice" Arrive; PTA Talks With The Guardian; More

It's New Years Eve so we'll keep this roundup short and sweet for you all:

A couple delicious new TV spots for Inherent Vice have been made available on YouTube.

Up next, Katherine Waterston stopped by QTV for a 20-minute interview on Vice, and was radiant and charming as always. Watch!

PTA sat down and talked with Mark Kermode for an interview in The Guardian and gave some really interesting insights into the making of Inherent Vice. Here are some highlights:

[Composer Jonny] Greenwood proved a key collaborator on Inherent Vice, despite Anderson originally telling him that “I won’t need that much music – which of course equals ‘I’m going to need a lot of music’. When Jonny first read the script there was all the stuff in there from the book about the Arpanet, which was like the original internet computer. So he started out doing some more electronic stuff, as if these sounds were coming out of the computer. But then these other ideas started to present themselves – orchestral ideas. It’s now getting to the spot in my relationship with Jonny when I can maybe mention a thing or two but really just leave him to his own devices. He’s always the first viewer, too.”

PTA also retroactively defended his composer in his Oscar disqualification in 2007, saying "Oh, the fix was in, wasn’t it? They just couldn’t stand the idea of a guy in a rock band with moppy hair being that good, I suppose. But hey, no sour grapes.”

Relating the musical qualities of Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love to the musical qualities in his more recent work, PTA said the following:

“Well,” he says, “those movies you mention are musicals in the sense that the music is woven so strongly inside them. I think that’s probably true of There Will Be Blood too. But starting with The Master, I was working on things that had a little more dialogue. You know, there’s music in there, but the film isn’t structured like a musical. This was more a matter of just driving to the set each day and listening to some stuff Jonny had sent me, or listening to Can, or Neil Young [both feature on the soundtrack] over and over. That’s what we were trying to do – to make a movie that felt like a Neil Young song, that has that sweet sadness to it.”

On the subject of finding the looks for each character, PTA reiterated that Owen Wilson's Coy Harlingen borrowed a lot from late Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, and, awesomely, Zoot from The Muppets. His take on Doc Sportello was just as interesting:

"As for Doc, we really stole his look from Neil Young circa 1970, with the mutton chops. Some of the wardrobes on Doc are a straight rip of him. I don’t think you can make a movie about this period and this culture without looking directly at him.”

You can read the entire interview, which is great, here.

- Finally, Character Poster/Trailer #5 Arrives:

A video posted by Inherent Vice (@inherentvicemovie) on Dec 12, 2014 at 9:59am PST

WATCH: 30 Minute Interviews With Brolin and Waterston on "Vice"

So far, Inherent Vice stars Josh Brolin and Katherine Waterston have sat down with David Poland for his (excellent) series DP30, where actors, filmmakers and artists get candid for 30 whole minutes, uncut, about their latest projects. The interviews embedded above are very illuminating. Spoilers are very minor in both cases. Nevertheless: watch at your own discretion. (Thanks @chambalvarado!)

Brolin, who has been among the most primary spokesmen for the film (even last year), also did a brief Google hangout with Gold Derby editor Tom O'Neil. It is generally spoiler-friendly as well:

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IV: 18 days

Find more information about the film on our Inherent Vice page. 

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Katherine Waterston and Sasha Pieterse Talk Inherent Vice, More Pics Arrive

In an article about forthcoming break out performances, The New York Times has the first official pic of Katherine Waterston as Shasta Fay Hepworth in Inherent Vice, seen above, and some very interesting remarks from Waterston on the nature of the project and the process of working on it. The article reveals that PTA came to an interest in working with Waterston after watching her 2008 film The Babysitters. The remarks do not reveal explicit plot points per se but they may be more suggestive of the film's tone than you'd like to know going in, so read forward at your own discretion:

In Mr. Anderson’s narcotic noir, “Inherent Vice,” set in Los Angeles in 1970 and based on the Thomas Pynchon novel, Ms. Waterston plays Shasta, right, the free-spirited, sensual ex-girlfriend who wakes the mutton-chopped private investigator Doc Sportello (Mr. Phoenix) from his stoner haze. Like a beacon shining through the counterculture’s druggie fog, Shasta bristles with the kind of wild-eyed, visceral energy Doc has self-medicated into oblivion: a romantic embodiment of what might have been, and what might be lost.

“Certainly, this whole film is sort of the smoke clearing after the ‘60s and everyone coming to, wondering what the hell happened,” she said. “There’s a lot of uncertainty on every page of the novel. Is it all in her head? Or not? Is she as afraid as she needs to be? Or not?"

Over at Filler Magazine, Pretty Little Liars veteran Sasha Pieterse dished out some nice comments about her experience working with PTA & co. on Inherent Vice:

"I'm pretty sure I will never have a better character name," laughs Pieterse, who goes on to gush about landing the part of Japonica and working with Anderson, as well as the film's star-studded ensemble cast, including Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon and Josh Brolin. "It was literally a dream to be involved with the movie," she says. "I'm really happy with the part of the film I'm in; I have so many fun scenes...and so many dark scenes."

Elsewhere in the piece, Pieterse goes a bit more in depth about her experience working on the film. These remarks are a slightly spoiler-laden in nature. Read at your own discretion.

Waterston, Brolin Talk More "Inherent Vice" In Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly has a couple more exclusive scoops on Inherent Vice from two of the stars of the film, Josh Brolin and Katherine Waterston, and here they are:

"With Paul, he's interested in what might happen, not what should happen," Waterston recalls of filming in Los Angeles last summer. "He doesn't walk onto set with a clear goal. That can be...surprising. It didn't feel chaotic; it felt thrilling. The set felt really vital. Like you were going into a question together."

For his part, Brolin was particularly struck by the un-Hollywood tenor of Anderson's filmmaking process. Exhibit A: the actors' freedom to lodge constructive criticism (a no-no for so many Serious Auteurs) and course-correct using all means of unusual props. 

"With this [film], there was a lack of pretense--a really strange lack of pretense," Brolin says. "When something isn't working, you can say, 'This feels like a turd. Let's cut the middle three pages. I'll try to improvise and provide a bridge. How about some pancakes?"

Pancakes?  

"I'm not joking about the pancakes," he confirms. "Many, many pancakes. By the end of the day, you're shaking so much because you've eaten so many pancakes, you know you're going to be diabetic in the next 24 hours."

Brolin went on to add that was movie was like "Cirque du Soleil more than pretentious filmmaking."

(Thanks to SuperGnodab for the heads up!)

IV (theatrical premiere): 118 days

IV (world premiere): 49 days

Find more information about the film on our Inherent Vice page. 
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Katherine Waterston Lands Female Lead in Inherent Vice

As Paul Thomas Anderson's seventh feature film enters principle photography this week, it would appear some final casting decisions are making their way through the woodworks. Via Deadline, Katherine Waterston, of Being Flynn and Being Sam Waterston's spawn fame, is reportedly set to nab the female lead in Inherent Vice as Shasta Fay.

Waterston's casting marks down yet another newcomer into the PTA fold so far for the film, joining the likes of Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Martin Short, Jena Malone, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, and (probably) Sean Penn in chewing some scenery for the man himself for the very first time.

Make sure to keep checking in for news as it continues to trickle in from the production over the coming days/weeks/months. Things are just getting started!

Stay tuned to Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and updates.
"The Master" is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.