"There Will Be Blood" Director Casts Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Upcoming Film

By our guest blogger, Rob Stammitti

You'll be hard pressed to find a bigger supporter of director Paul Thomas Anderson than me. Every one of his last four films ("Boogie Nights," "Magnolia," "Punch-Drunk Love," "There Will Be Blood") is the epitome of excellence, and even his debut "Hard Eight," though not quite on par with his recent stuff, is really great.

Oscar-winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman has been a frequent collaborator from the start, and has given some of his best performances in Anderson's films, so it's great to hear that PT Anderson has his next film finally lined up and, if all goes according to plan, Hoffman will be in the lead.

The plot, according to movieline.com:

"Paul Thomas Anderson’s next film is a period drama in which Philip Seymour Hoffman will play The Master — a “charismatic intellectual who hatches a faith-based organization that begins to catch on in America in 1952.”(But it’s NOT the L. Ron Hubbard story.) Universal won’t greenlight the film, budgeted at $35 million, until he delivers a finished script."

It seems as if Anderson is ready to head further into the religious themes he explored in "Blood," and though they felt the need to express that the film is not a biopic or exploration of L. Ron Hubbard or Scientology, it may very well be that Anderson is keeping his primary target on the hush because of the controversy surrounding the organization and its leader. Hoffman also looks startlingly similar to Hubbard. Still, I don't want to speculate too much. Whatever the overall plot winds up being, I'll be first in line.