Paul Thomas Anderson, the celebrated director of There Will Be Blood has almost unbelievably managed to find not only funding for his next film, a satire of alternative religion (previously titled The Master, now currently nameless) but also distribution from The Weinstein Company and the acting talents of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix.
The script, according to Deadline, has undergone a reworking and will see Hoffman play a soldier returning from a horrific tour of duty in World War II, only to rediscover himself and launch a belief system which captures the imaginations of like-minded individuals including Phoenix’s character. It’s mirroring the back story of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard (who claimed to have healed himself after sustaining war wounds in Vietnam).
Anderson is now on the hunt for female leads with Benjamin Button‘s Madisen Beatty apparently a strong candidate alongside Laura Dern and Amy Adams.
He has $35 million with which to make the movie but I’m willing to bet than he spends most of that defending his film against viciously litigious Church Of Scientology members.
