Film may or may not be about Scientology
Have you heard about Paul Thomas Anderson's new film, The Master? It's widely believed to be inspired, at least in part, on the Scientology religion and it's founder, L. Ron Hubbard. The trailer for The Master dropped earlier this week, and clips of the film were shown at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday. The buzz on the film is pretty positive and, considering it's now (loosely) linked to Scientology, it's getting a ton of attention.
Which begs the question: What does Tom Cruise think about the movie? Has he seen it? He and P.T. Anderson are buddies, and Cruise is Mr. Scientology, so did he get a private screening? And if so, did he flip out over it? Jump on couches? Apparently, Cruise did see a cut of The Master and he did have some "issues" with it.In The Master, Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Lancaster Dodd, a man who decides to form his own religion, The Cause. This is set in the 1950s, around the time, coincidentally (or not) that L. Ron Hubbard got things going. Here's the newly-released teaser trailer for The Master:
And yes, that's Joaquin Phoenix (welcome back!) as one of Lancaster Dodd's closest associates. The Master also stars Amy Adams and Laura Dern, so yeah, The Master has major star power.
But back to the far more important matter at hand: What does Tom Cruise think about the movie? In short, he's got some "issues" with it, according to TheWrap, but that's basically all we know. What issues, specifically? What parts of the film bothered him? Apparently Cruise's people had "no immediate comment," so we may never know.
This whole situation only helps to build the buzz for The Master even more. I love P.T. Anderson's films, especially There Will Be Blood and Magnolia (see: Tom Cruise). But should the Weinstein Company embrace the similarities this film's plot has to Hubbard and the Church of Scientology, or not? TheWrap reports that Weinstein will also screen The Master for another famous Scientology member, John Travolta. The reactions of these two mega-stars, Travolta and Cruise, may well dictate how The Master is marketed in coming months.
Does anyone else think it's kind of creepy that Weinstein is essentially vetting a film for these two actors? And if it's NOT about the S-word, why bother vetting to two of the world's most famous S-word followers?
Which begs the question: What does Tom Cruise think about the movie? Has he seen it? He and P.T. Anderson are buddies, and Cruise is Mr. Scientology, so did he get a private screening? And if so, did he flip out over it? Jump on couches? Apparently, Cruise did see a cut of The Master and he did have some "issues" with it.In The Master, Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Lancaster Dodd, a man who decides to form his own religion, The Cause. This is set in the 1950s, around the time, coincidentally (or not) that L. Ron Hubbard got things going. Here's the newly-released teaser trailer for The Master:
And yes, that's Joaquin Phoenix (welcome back!) as one of Lancaster Dodd's closest associates. The Master also stars Amy Adams and Laura Dern, so yeah, The Master has major star power.
But back to the far more important matter at hand: What does Tom Cruise think about the movie? In short, he's got some "issues" with it, according to TheWrap, but that's basically all we know. What issues, specifically? What parts of the film bothered him? Apparently Cruise's people had "no immediate comment," so we may never know.
This whole situation only helps to build the buzz for The Master even more. I love P.T. Anderson's films, especially There Will Be Blood and Magnolia (see: Tom Cruise). But should the Weinstein Company embrace the similarities this film's plot has to Hubbard and the Church of Scientology, or not? TheWrap reports that Weinstein will also screen The Master for another famous Scientology member, John Travolta. The reactions of these two mega-stars, Travolta and Cruise, may well dictate how The Master is marketed in coming months.
Does anyone else think it's kind of creepy that Weinstein is essentially vetting a film for these two actors? And if it's NOT about the S-word, why bother vetting to two of the world's most famous S-word followers?