Showbiz411

Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” now has a second official trailer. It plays at the bottom of the home page here in our video player. For the first time we see Philip Seymour Hoffman as the L. Ron Hubbard character, describing himself to acolyte Joaquin Phoenix as a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher. But above all, I am a man. A hopelessly inquisitive man, like you.” The music is creepy, the movie looks a little scary and portentous. Hoffman’s character is already trying to pry into Phoenix’s psyche. These are little pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. What they’re going to add up to could be anything, but it’s going to be intense, that’s for sure. We’re watching a L. Ron Hubbard, or someone like him, develop a belief system that will become a cult.

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.