Thanks to the power of prayer, Paul Thomas Anderson is now close to financing both The Master and Inherent Vice

Or rather, we should be thanking Megan Ellison, the 25-year old daughter of Oracle honcho Larry Ellison. According to Vulture, the billion dollar former party daughter has come in to save not only Paul Thomas Anderson’s thinly-veiled dissection of the Church of Scientology THE MASTER, but also his proposed adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 novel INHERENT VICE. Praise be to Megan!

First up, INHERENT VICE – It tells the story of Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello, “a pothead private detective hired by a former girlfriend to investigate the disappearance of her wealthy lover in 1969 Los Angeles.” According to Vulture, Anderson is already midway through a second draft of the screenplay all the while consulting with Pynchon himself on the adaptation. Last we heard, Robert Downey Jr. was being pursued for the role of ‘Doc’, and it now appears that with his recent departure from Sam Raimi’s OZ, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, Downey’s newly opened schedule may allow him to him take that role.

And now, THE MASTER – As we all know, the film fell apart back in September. That was all thanks to Universal who had apparently balked at the picture’s proposed $35 million budget. The film, from an original script by Anderson, was a drama centered around “a disaffected disciple’s relationship with the founder of a new spiritual movement called the Cause… that examines the human need to believe in a Creator.” That disaffected disciple was originally going to be played by Jeremy Renner, though the pause in development caused him to move on to pastures that were actually being filmed. Philip Seymour Hoffman, however, is apparently still very much interested. He was attached to play the L. Ron Hubbard-like leader of the spiritual movement/cult.

No word yet on which film would actually be Anderson’s next, but let’s all just take a moment to at least give thanks to people with shittons of money and good taste.