Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest picture, The Master, charts how one dude began a quest to make money from a mix of psychoanalysis and science fiction concepts. It worked. Based seemingly on L. Ron Hubbard’s barking mad Scientology cult, The Master, stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix.

Last month, word got out that Anderson had shown the film to his friend Tom Cruise who liked the film but seemed upset with certain parts. Very interesting. Anyway, a second teaser trailer has been put out online that introduces Hoffman’s charismatic charlatan.

The film, judging from the trailer, looks lovely with Mihai Malaimare Jr. on lensing duties. Malaimare has been Francis Ford Coppola’s DOP on the great director’s past few movies. Now he’s teamed up with another great. And I don’t use that word lightly. Is there anybody else out there so young and so masterful with the medium? Anderson is indeed a master of cinema. Yet this new project marks a departure for previous cinematographer Robert Elswit, who shot all of PTA’s films previous.

Co-starring with Hoffman and Phoenix is Amy Adams, Laura Dern and Kevin J. O’Connor. The Master is set for release later in 2012.

Written and directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Thomas Anderson (the acclaimed director of, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia and Boogie Nights), this story stars Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) and Academy Award-nominee Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line). Set in America in the years following World War II, a charismatic intellectual (Hoffman) launches a faith-based organization and taps a young drifter (Phoenix) as his right-hand man. But as the faith begins to gain a fervent following, the onetime vagabond finds himself questioning the belief system he has embraced, and his mentor. A truly one-of-a-kind drama, which promises magnetic virtuoso performances, the film marks the fifth collaboration between Anderson and Hoffman, following Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch Drunk Love.

Source: Youtube