PTA is your Master | Movie News

Directorial deity Paul Thomas Anderson has his next project lined up... and he's ready to make you question your faith.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, teaming for the fourth time with Anderson, will be playing the lead role as a character known only as "the Master" (as in "master of ceremonies") in what will be a 1950s period drama. Hoffman's "Master" will be "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."

Variety also states the following which I thought was kind of a funny: "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."

Whether that's simply publicity-speak to not piss-off half of Hollywood and the TWILIGHT community will remain to be seen. But good GOD do I hope this film pisses somebody off. Controversy! Fun!

The project is lined up at Universal with a proposed budget of $35 million. A decision about whether to greenlight the pic won't come until Anderson delivers a finished script, which will hopefully be soon.

Extra Tidbit: Reading through this story, the first thing that sprung to mind was THIS.