New Banner, Image, and Promo for P.T. Anderson's 'Inherent Vice'

While the rest of us will have to wait a few more weeks to check out Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, one lucky audience in the U.K. is going to see it a bit early. A new promo featuring some bits of new footage has been released, hyping an early screening at the Prince Charles Cinema this Wednesday.

Along with the footage, which again shows how much of a crazy departure this is for Anderson, comes a new banner featuring Joanna Newsom, who narrates the story of L.A. private detective Doc Sportello, played by Joaquin Phoenix. Lastly, a new image for the film has arrived with Phoenix and co-star Katherine Waterston.

Also starring Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Martin Short, Jena Malone, Maya Rudolph and more, Inherent Vice opens December 12th.

SYNOPSIS: Inherent Vice is the seventh feature from Paul Thomas Anderson and the first film adaption of a Thomas Pynchon novel. When P.I. Doc Sportello's ex-old lady shows up with a story about her current billionaire land developer boyfriend and a plot by his wife and her boyfriend to kidnap that billionaire and throw him in a looney bin... well, easy for her to say. It's the tail end of the `60s, paranoia is running the day and Doc knows that "love" is one of those words going around, like "trip" or "groovy," that's way too overused-except this one usually leads to trouble. With a cast of characters that includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, LAPD Detectives, a tenor sax player working undercover and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dentists... Part surf noir, part psychedelic romp-all Thomas Pynchon.

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New Logo Art for Marvel's 'Agent Carter' Series

Pretty soon there will be more Marvel TV shows than there are Marvel movies, and basically you'll be able to watch something superheroic every single week without breaks. Marvel's troubled Agents of SHIELD has been picked up for another go 'round, and they've also got a handful of Netflix shows gearing up in the near future. But ABC also picked up Hayley Atwell's Agent Carter straight to series, and without wasting any time have released this piece of promo art.


Pretty simple, but you get the early SHIELD logo design right away. It'll be interesting to see if there will be any crossover between the older and newer versions of the intelligence agency. Here's a plot description for the show, which is expected to be a 13-episode limited series:

Marvel’s Agent Carter, starring Captain America’s Hayley Atwell follows the story of Peggy Carter. It’s 1946, and peace has dealt Peggy Carter a serious blow as she finds herself marginalized when the men return home from fighting abroad.

Working for the covert SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve), Peggy must balance doing administrative work and going on secret missions for Howard Stark all while trying to navigate life as a single woman in America, in the wake of losing the love of her life–Steve Rogers. Inspired by the feature films Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, along with the short Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter.

Starring Hayley Atwell as Agent Peggy Carter, Marvel’s Agent Carter is executive produced by Christopher Markus, Steve McFeely, Tara Butters, Michele Fazekas, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Jeph Loeb.

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Season finale of 'True Detective' gets an utterly stress-inducing teaser

I am an insanely obsessed True Detective person, and I'm not ashamed! I read its Reddit page compulsively. I follow way too many Tumblrs that post gif after gif after gif of each episode. And next week, when this first season with Woody Harrelson and your new winner of the Best Actor Oscar Matthew "All right, all right, all right" McConaughey ends, I will be DESPONDENT. Because True Detective may be the best show on TV right now and I can't even imagine how season two could get any better.

If you're watching, you know all the plot threads that have to be tied up - the Yellow King, Carcosa, if Marty's (Harrelson's character) daughter Audrey had anything to do with those creepy men in terrifying animal masks - and you also know that last night's episode already revealed some major plot points we've been building up to for weeks. And, if you need to whet your appetite a bit more, check out the teaser below for the season finale. IS THAT RUST TIED UP ON THAT BED? WHAT IS GOING ON? I AM VERY STRESSED OUT

Join me in being stressed. Next Sunday on the PunchDrunkCritics podcast we'll discuss our theories about how the show is going to wrap up; be sure to listen in. Until then, I'll be over here working on my devil's nest.

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Logo revealed for '300: Rise of an Empire'

We've seen next to nothing from the sequel to 300, titled Rise of an Empire, so hopefully this newly released promo image is just the beginning. Detailed in a style similar to prior film, it doesn't actually show or tell us much except that the film opens in 2013. Interestingly, it doesn't give the specific August 2nd date we previously learned about, so it may have been changed.

The film brings back Rodrigo Santoro as the Persian ruler, Xerxes, as he begins a quest to achieve godhood. Set before, during, and after the Battle of Thermopylae shown in Zack Snyder's hit 2007 film, the story will also follow Themistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) and include the battle of Salamis, which Queen Artemisia (Eva Green) was a big part of.

Gone are the big names, like Gerard Butler and Lena Headey, but surely the blood and bare chests will remain? It's doubtful that new director Noam Murro would pull back on the violence, or drastically change the visual style that worked so well before.  [Facebook]

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