WASHINGTON – So much for retirement. Joaquin Phoenix is back.
The actor’s strange 2009 interview on Letterman seemed to signal the end of his career, only to be followed a year later by a film that showed his bizarre behavior was a hoax.
After a two-year hiatus, a trailer for “The Master” has just been released, teasing the newest production by Paul Thomas Anderson, who directed other alt-flicks such as “Punch-Drunk Love,” “Boogie Nights,” and “There Will Be Blood.” Eerie music and an incongruous character played by Phoenix seem to be right up both film veterans’ alleys.
While details on the film remain murky, critics speculate the post-war philosophical thriller follows somewhat the beginnings of Scientology. A religious figure played by Philip Seymour Hoffman takes a troubled sailor in Phoenix’ adrift character under his wing through a new school of belief.
Scientology founder and science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard himself had a shaky military history before establishing the religion in the 1950s.
The film is slated for release in October. Check out the trailer:
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