Magnolia and There Will Be Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson may not make a lot of movies, but when he does, you can pretty much guarantee it’s going to be interesting. It’s therefore great news to know that thing are moving forward with his next film, which will be a period drama set in the 1950s.
Anderson has already lined up his old Boogie Nights and Magnolia cohort Philip Seymour Hoffman for the central role. He’ll play ‘the Master’, who is an intellectual who sets up a faith based organisation that begins to catch on in America in 1952. The main plot wil cover the relationship between the Master and a young drifter called Freddie, who becomes Hoffman’s character’s right-hand man. However as the faith begins to grow, Freddie begins to question both the organisation and its beliefs, as well as the motivations of his mentor.
It seems then that Anderson is continuing his fascination with people’s need to believe in a higher power, which he first nudged with Magnolia, before making it major theme of There Will Be Blood. Variety reports that the film isn’t designed to specifically pillory any particular religious belief, but more to question what it is that attracts people to different belief systems, and at what point does an alternate belief turn into a religion. That said, if it’s anything like There Will Be Blood, it’ll be pretty critical of the whole shebang.
At the moment the film doesn’t have the greenlight, with Universal waiting to see a finished script before they give the official go ahead to the $35 million movie. Hopefully there won’t be any problems and we’ll get a new PT Anderson movie soon, and not have to wait five years like we did between Punch Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood.