Warner Bros. recently released the first trailer for Inherent Vice, the long-awaited latest feature from celebrated filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson.

You can watch the trailer here below.

Based on the best-selling 2009 novel by the elusive iconoclastic author Thomas Pynchon, Vice stars Joaquin Phoenix as a Los Angeles hippie private detective who uncovers a scheme to kidnap a billionaire land developer (Eric Roberts) who his ex-girlfriend (Katherine Waterson) is in love with. His investigation brings him into the orbit of a star-studded cast of cops, criminals, and drugged-out California eccentrics in the early 1970s that also features Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Jena Malone, Maya Rudolph, and Martin Short.

Not everything you see in a movie trailer or TV spot makes it into the final cut. If you got to see already The Master, you may have noticed that some of the scenes used in the trailer were left out of the film. These omitted scenes did not hurt the film in any way, but it does beg the question, why did director Paul Thomas Anderson leave them on the cutting room floor?

While we may never know the answer to this question, The Master is still a thought-provoking look at the human condition and just in case our review did not entice you to watch this incredible film – watching it in 70mm is a must – then the following trailer should seal the deal. Check out the NSFW sizzle reel for Anderson’s The Master below.

The Master
Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Laura Dern
The Weinstein Company
Rated R | 137 Minutes
Release Date: September 14th, 2012

“I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher… but above all I am a man. A hopelessly inquisitive man, just like you.”

Director Paul Thomas Anderson‘s The Master is a post-World War II drama that focuses on the relationship between a charismatic intellectual known as ‘Master’ (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Freddie Quell, a drifter who becomes his right-hand man (Joaquin Phoenix).

Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman) is the leader of a faith-based organization known as The Cause, which has drawn numerous comparisons to Scientology as a cult-like movement. With his 1950 book, Dianetics, Scientology guru L. Ron Hubbard introduced the idea of ‘auditing,’ a process that allows one to go back in time and recover pre-birth, in utero memories, and disarm harmful ones while improving their mental faculties in the present.

Similarly, Dodd uses a form of ‘processing’ to ascertain a person’s true nature by asking them a series of questions and calling on them to remember details about past lives and pre-birth memories. After Freddie, a Navy veteran with a nervous condition and a drinking problem, stows away on Dodd’s yacht, the Master decides to take him in under his wing and make Freddie his protégé and guinea pig for ‘processing’ experiments.

The marketing for Paul Thomas Anderson‘s The Master has been absolutely great. We’ve gotten prolific teasers, a real trailer, a secret showing, and advanced screenings for a good cause.

Now in the days leading up to the Toronto International Film Festival, The Weinstein Company has released one more trailer. Check it out below.

The Master is proving why its one of the most highly anticipated films of the year with each and every new teaser release. Not only that, but select cities have been able to see advanced screenings of the film, and let’s just say they are overwhelmingly positive. But before the film can make its official debut to the public next month, the film’s director, Paul Thomas Anderson, shared a few thoughts on his latest directorial effort. There’s also a new clip that has been released and it reveals the newest city to get an advanced screening of the film.

Check it out below.

In an interview with NewsWeek magazine (via Collider), Anderson acknowledges the rumors he’s heard about The Master being about Scientology. Although the film’s key character (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is based on L. Ron Hubbard’s founding of Scientology and the influence it has on its followers, the film is not about the religion entirely. In fact, it wasn’t his intention to create the real life story of L. Ron Hubbard.