As we previously reported, filming on Paul Thomas Anderson‘s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon‘s Inherent Vice will begin soon.  Today we’ve learned that Warner Bros., not the previously rumored Annapurna Pictures, who financed The Master, will be coming on board to finance the picture.  That’s a big step up in terms of visibility and ultimately promotion of the picture.  If Warner Bros. had come on as a distributor after the film successfully showed at a festival, that would be less surprising, but apparently the studio has enough faith in what is admittedly a lower-budget picture than their usual fare.  It also signals that the movie may be more mainstream than The Master, and perhaps a return to Anderson’s previous pictures Boogie Nights and Magnolia, which were released through Warner subsidiary, New Line Pictures. Cigarettes and Red Vines reports that the parting from Annapurna was “amicable” and that the two hope to work together in the future.

Hit the jump for more on Inherent Vice including the involvement of director of photography, Robert Elswit.

It’s no secret that Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master went through significant growing pains throughout its production.  From frequent script changes to its falling out at Universal, The Master has changed considerably from its original conception to the film that was released this past year.  With its release on Blu-ray a few days ago, someone posted the deleted scenes reel that Anderson has included.  Most auteur filmmakers, like Woody Allen and Christopher Nolan, choose not to include deleted scenes when their films are released to DVD and Blu-Ray, but Anderson’s inclusion of the 20 minute reel provides a more in-depth look into what could have been.  The fact that it is edited and scored helps it to stand out as more than just a deleted scenes clip, and serves as more of a parallel story to the film.  Hit the jump to see the footage of what almost made it into the final cut.

For proof that 2012 was a nutty year for awards contenders, look no further than the Best Director category.  Over the past few days, we’ve been looking back how the ebbs and flows of the past 12 months have shaped the awards race in a number of categories, and one of the most dynamic shifts came with Best Director.  After the jump, we run down how the race for Oscar glory progressed over the past few months to give us the five nominees who will be vying for the gold on Oscar Sunday.  Hit the jump to read on.

It appears that writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson is wasting no time in putting together his follow-up to his 2012 effort The Master.  Though there was a five-year gap between Punch-Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood and the same amount of time lapsed between TWBB and The Master, Anderson is moving much faster on his adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice.  We recently learned that Anderson’s The Master star Joaquin Phoenix will be handling the lead role in the 1960s Los Angeles private detective story, and now word comes that production is gearing up to begin in a few short months.  Hit the jump for more.

Fresh off their polarizing yet undeniably impressive collaboration on The Master, director Paul Thomas Anderson and Joaquin Phoenix are looking to team up for another project.  THR reports that Phoenix is now in talks to star in Anderson’s adaptation of the Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice, which takes place in 1969 Los Angeles and centers on a private detective who is helping a former lover with an intriguing case that involves infidelity, mental institutions, and policemen called “Bigfoot.”  Robert Downey Jr. had long been circling the lead role, but the actor apparently decided to pass on the project.

Anderson recently described his screenplay adaptation for Inherent Vice as more “secretarial” than his adaptation for There Will Be Blood, but I wouldn’t necessarily bank on the filmmaker making a wholly accessible film—especially with Phoenix in the lead role.  The actor was a force of nature in The Master, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what the two cook up for this project.  Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures, which financed The Master, is once again producing.  Hit the jump to read a synopsis for the book.

Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s perplexing drama The Master was certainly one of the most thought-provoking films of 2012, and now you can continue to (attempt to) unravel the puzzle at home with the Blu-ray and DVD release.  The Weinstein Company announced today that The Master will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 26th.  The combo pack’s special features include “Back Beyond,” which is a collection of outtakes and additional scenes edited to music by composer Johnny Greenwood, “Unguided Message,” which is an 8-minute short/behind-the-scenes look at the film, and a group of teasers and trailers which as we all know included footage not shown in the film.

As a bonus, an additional special feature will be added to the combo pack by way of John Huston’s fantastic 1946 documentary about WWII veterans Let There Be Light.  Hit the jump to check out the full press release and cover art.

At last, Oscar is upon us.  Back in November I shared a look at the early awards season race by way of our 2013 Oscar Preview articles, and now nearly two months later there’s still quite a bit up in the air.  This truly is one of the more exciting awards races in recent years, as 2012 is so stacked with quality that there are a surprising number of uncertainties this close to the Academy Awards ceremony.  Nevertheless, I am once again foolishly going to attempt to predict how the Oscar nominations will shake out when they’re announced tomorrow morning, January 10th.  Hit the jump to check out my predictions.

As we head into the thick of awards season, we’re starting to see how the various guilds stack up with regards to the best of 2012 (the PGA nominations were announced yesterday).  The guilds are usually a good Oscar predictor as their voting bodies overlap significantly with the Academy’s voting body, and today we have a peek into the screenplay race by way of the nominations for the 2013 Writers Guild Awards.  The list includes some pleasant surprises like Rian Johnson’s brilliantly original script for Looper and Steven Chbosky’s touching adaptation of his own novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, as well as expected candidates like The Master, Moonrise Kingdom, Zero Dark Thirty, and Lincoln.

Each year a number of screenplays are ruled ineligible for the WGA’s, and this year is no exception as Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Behn Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, and William Nicholson’s Les Miserables were all  ineligible for WGA consideration for various insignificant reasons.  Hit the jump to check out the full list of WGA nominations.  The 2013 Writers Guild Awards will be held on February 17th.

Though director Paul Thomas Anderson’s drama The Master was certainly one of the most polarizing films of 2012, it looks as if he’s tackling some more straightforward subject matter for his next feature.  Anderson has been eyeing an adaptation of the Thomas Pychon novel Inherent Vice for a few years now, and he worked on nabbing financing for the pic early last year, at the same time that he got The Master financed.  Last we heard, Anderson was working on the screenplay with Robert Downey Jr. keen on tackling the starring role, and now post-Master Anderson has talked a bit more about the project, revealing that he hopes to start shooting next year.

Hit the jump to see what Anderson had to say.

Paul Thomas Anderson‘s The Master got a bit of a boost in the awards race as two critics organizations heaped honors upon the film.  The Toronto Film Critics Association named The Master best film of the year, and the movie also picked up Best Supporting Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Best Director (Anderson), and Best Screenplay (Anderson).  Meanwhile, the London Critics Circle bestowed seven nominations on The Master as well as Michael Haneke‘s Amour.  Since the Academy is allowed to nominate up to ten films, it looks like The Master and Amour are well on their way to grabbing Best Picture Oscar nominations.

Hit the jump for the list of awards and nominations.  The London Critics Circle will announce their winners on January 20th.

Director Kathryn Bigelow’s drama Zero Dark Thirty continues its dominant critics awards path, as it has picked up two more Best Picture wins from the New York Film Critics Online and Boston Society of Film Critics groups, adding to its previous wins from the New York Film Critics Circle and National Board of Review.  Bigelow also won Best Director from both organizations, while Daniel Day-Lewis took home Best Actor for Lincoln.  Emmanuelle Riva won Best Actress from New York and Boston, while she shared the award in a tie with Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook in the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.

Los Angeles broke from the mold a bit by naming director Michael Haneke‘s devastating French-language film Amour the Best Film of the year.  They also awarded Paul Thomas Anderson Best Director for The Master and Beasts of the Southern Wild’s Dwight Henry the Best Supporting Actor honor in a couple of pleasant surprises.  Hit the jump for the full list of winners from all three critics groups.

Here’s where things get interesting.  Over that past few days we’ve been taking an early look at the 2013 Oscar race, running down the contenders in a number of categories including Best Supporting Actor and Actress, Best Actor and Best Actress, and Best Animated Feature, Screenplay, and technological category quick picks.  We’ve now come to our final installment, Best Picture and Best Director, and these two races are shaping up to be incredibly interesting. Hit the jump for the full rundown.

We’re continuing on with our weeklong preview of the upcoming 85th Academy Awards, and after running down both acting categories it’s time to take look at some of the other races.  Today we’ll be looking at the Best Animated Feature, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay categories in depth, and I’ll also make some way-too-early quick picks in the technical categories.  The fun begins after the jump.

Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’ long-awaited drama The Master has already been out for a few weeks now, but awards season is just getting started.  As such, Anderson recently made the rounds on a The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and CBS This Morning to discuss the film, its polarizing response, balancing his writer and director duties, and more.  Though interviews with film and TV professionals on The Daily Show are usually rather playful, Jon Stewart was genuinely thrilled to pick Anderson’s brain for a few minutes and the result is a rather interesting discussion on his filmmaking process.

Over at CBS This Morning things were unsurprisingly a tad more glib, but Anderson did take some time to talk about the rather polarizing response that the film has been drumming up in some circles and mentioned Harvey Weinstein’s impact on the pic.  For fans of Anderson or great filmmakers in general, both interviews are a fascinating watch.  Hit the jump to check them out.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master expanded to a rather wide number of theaters this past weekend, but a final trailer for the film has just now landed online.  Anderson confirmed that he cut and released the previous trailers himself, and this nearly 5-minute long final trailer is appropriately titled “Last One/Thank You.”  The clip features a great deal of unseen footage and extended scenes not in the finished film, so it’s a fruitful watch for those that are still ruminating on the incredibly dense pic (like myself).  It’s rare these days that we get a film that sparks so much discussion and so many varied opinions on what it all means, and I have a feeling we’re gonna be talking about The Master for years to come.

Hit the jump to watch the extended trailer, which is NSFW.  The film stars Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams.