The first trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of Inherent Vice dropped today and, as expected, it's a madcap psychedelic Southern California love song that may or may not feature an appearance by elusive author Thomas Pynchon.

The film is packed with talent—Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Jena Malone, Owen Wilson, Martin Short, and Maya Rudolph all make appearances—but the probable Pynchon cameo has garnered the most press so far.

Anderson declined to answer directly in a recent interview with the New York Times, but Brolin confirmed the notoriously reclusive author will appear in the film, telling the reporter, "I don't think anybody knew... He came on as the kind of mercurial iconoclast he is. He stayed in the corner."

Although Anderson wrote the script, Pynchon also reportedly played an active role in the film's production.

"I know that they talked a lot," Mr. Phoenix said by phone. "Sometimes, he'd say, 'Oh, I talked to Pynchon last night, and we were talking, he thought maybe it could be like this or like that.' It was pretty amazing, because it seemed like he was very active in the process through Paul. It seemed like they talked often and he would make suggestions or talk about how to condense three scenes into one."

The film—which looks like Boogie Nights: PI, in the best way possible—is set to premiere at the New York Film Festival this weekend, but won't be in wide release until December.