Merrick here...


Paul Thomas Anderson is working on his next script - which Universal is waiting to receive before a final green light is given. The project stars Philip Seymour Hoffman

...as a founder of a new religious organization in the 1950s. The project is set up at Universal, which will make a decision about whether to greenlight the pic, with a $35 million budget, once Anderson delivers a finished script.Hoffman, who has played supporting roles in most of Anderson's past films, this time will be at the center, playing "the Master," as in "master of ceremonies," a charismatic intellectual who hatches a faith-based organization that begins to catch on in America in 1952. The core is the relationship between the Master and Freddie, a twentysomething drifter who becomes the leader's lieutenant. As the faith begins to gain a fervent following, Freddie finds himself questioning the belief system he has embraced, and his mentor.
[EDIT]
The drama does not so much scrutinize self-started churches like Scientology or the Mormons, as much as it explores the need to believe in a higher power, the choice of which one to embrace and the point at which a belief system graduates into a religion.

...says THIS article in Variety.

This would probably make for a really, really interesting movie - and Philip Seymour Hoffman can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned. But, it's so not my cup of tea. LEGION's mace wielding angels are more my speed.

More on Anderson's latest as more comes in...

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