The first feature film adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel, “Inherent Vice” stars Oscar nominees Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin, Oscar winners Reese Witherspoon and Benicio Del Toro, plus Owen Wilson, Martin Short, Jena Malone, Joanna Newsom and newcomer Katherine Waterston.

READ MORE: Check Out This Beautiful Poster for the 52nd New York Film Festival

This marks Anderson’s third time at the festival, having previously screened “Boogie Nights” (1997) and “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002). The Warner Bros. Pictures release is slated to open in limited release on December 12, 2014 and wide on January 9, 2015.

“Every new Paul Thomas Anderson movie is an event, an experience — when the lights come up, you feel like you’ve been somewhere, and come back with your mind altered. ‘Inherent Vice’ is a journey through the past, bringing the texture of the early 70s SoCal counterculture back to full blown life. It’s a wildly funny, deeply soulful, richly detailed, and altogether stunning movie,” said New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair, Kent Jones in announcing the news.

Anderson adapted the screenplay based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon. JoAnne Sellar, Daniel Lupi and Anderson produced the film, with Scott Rudin and Adam Somner serving as executive producers.

In addition to the opening selection, “Gone Girl,” NYFF previously announced a retrospective entitled “Joseph L. Mankiewicz: The Essential Iconoclast,” as well as initial selections in the Revivals section of the festival to include “Burroughs: The Movie,” “The Color of Pomegranates,” “Hiroshima Mon Amour” and “Once Upon a Time in America.”