In tomorrow’s podcast Anne and I touch on the possibility of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” showing up at Venice, but we both secretly hope it goes to Telluride, too/instead. Because, yes, that’s where we’ll be, and like most cinephiles, we’re excited for Paul Thomas Anderson’s first film in five years.
The film will be coming along at an interesting time for Scientology (the “religion” sent up in some ways by the narrative with an L. Ron Hubbard-like character in Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Lancaster Dodd). Tales of subterfuge and escape acts have circled Katie Holmes’s divorce from Scientology golden boy Tom Cruise in recent weeks, drumming up more and more stories about the organization, some new, many old, all bizarre. But all of that will be backdrop to the film, which, to judge by the new full-length trailer (which comes after a couple of teases), presents Anderson in top form with some of the industry’s best actors giving it all they’ve got.
Joining Hoffman will be Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Laura Dern, among others. Speaking of which, it was recently confirmed to me that Phoenix is indeed the lead of the film while Hoffman’s work is more of a supporting thing. Either way I think both are in a pretty great position to get a lot of awards season love, but let’s not count our chickens just yet.
Check out the new trailer, courtesy of Yahoo! Movies, below. Also included is the first poster for the film, which I must say, I totally dig.
“The Master” opens in limited release on Friday, October 12.