New P.T. Anderson film coming - when the snow flies again

Waiting for your favorite filmmaker to release a new movie isn't easy. But when that filmmaker is Paul Thomas Anderson (and NOT Paul W.S. Anderson), the wait is always worth it.

Not that I've liked everything the man has put on the big screen. His last effort, "The Master," was masterfully made, but I ended up feeling more quizzical than anything else. Appreciative, yes, but also … flummoxed. And I recognize that parts of "Magnolia," such as the rain of frogs, doesn't work for everybody.

But after watching "Boogie Nights," "Punch-Drunk Love" and "There Will Be Blood," I knew that of today's best filmmakers, he was one whose work I was always going to anticipate seeing. Which is why, though we're barely finished with winter, I'm already looking forward to December. Because that's when Anderson's new film, "Inherent Vice," is scheduled to open — on Dec. 12, to be exact.

Here's a brief IMDB plot synopsis: "In Los Angeles in 1970, drug-fueled detective Larry 'Doc' Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend." Joaquin Phlenix stars as Sportello, and he is joined by the likes of Jena Malone, Reese Witherspoon, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Owen Wilson and Maya Rudolph (former "Saturday Night Live" star and Anderson's live-in partner). Though he wrote the screenplay, Anderson's movie is an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's 2009 novel.

So, a new movie by P.T. Anderson, based on a Pynchon noir. It's enough to brave another cold season just to experience.

Bring back the snow.

Below: This video, taken by a guy named Brian Reynolds, was filmed on the set of "Inherent Vice" during shooting in Manhattan Beach, Calif., on July 25, 2103. Like all movie sets, it all seems pretty random. But you can see a sunglasses-wearing Joaquin Phoenix begging a cigarette and, briefly, director P.T. Anderson moving around.