Philip Seymour Hoffman as LRH?
December 3, 2009 by XENU TV
Filed under Latest News, Movies
That may be the case. A new film is underway from acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood) in which Hoffman plays the “Master” of a new religious movement started in 1952. You can read the full article at Variety.
Hoffman, who has played supporting roles in most of Anderson’s past films, this time will be at the center, playing “the Master,” as in “master of ceremonies,” a charismatic intellectual who hatches a faith-based organization that begins to catch on in America in 1952. The core is the relationship between the Master and Freddie, a twentysomething drifter who becomes the leader’s lieutenant. As the faith begins to gain a fervent following, Freddie finds himself questioning the belief system he has embraced, and his mentor.
The drama does not so much scrutinize self-started churches like Scientology or the Mormons, as much as it explores the need to believe in a higher power, the choice of which one to embrace and the point at which a belief system graduates into a religion.
Hoffman would be superb as L. Ron Hubbard. Reason enough to green-light a film, if you ask me.
OMG if this is true, it’s PERFECT casting!!
This begs to be a film, and Anderson/Hoffman would be the best I can imagine.
I always thought Daniel Craig would be ideal as David Miscavige in the inevitable, if not now then one day, film about the rise and fall of Scientology.
The problem is, no film like this that has any relation to LRH will ever come close to the reality of the man’s craziness and general horribleness. People wouldn’t believe it was accurate, they would think it was too crazy to be true.
This would be pretty awesome. Hoffman is an amazing actor and is probably the only person who could pull it off.
Yes absolutely. Hoffman is perfect for Mad Ron (although as a Brit, I rather predictably think that Toby Jones could also have a fair crack at it. Toby has the authentic ‘piggy’ eyes for LRH.)
If the film covers the latter years of Scientology, then the best actor for Miscavage would be Tom Cruise himself since they are almost clones anyway. We can choose someone from YouTube to play Tom Cruise (my vote would be the Damn Show guy with the puppy). I think Jim Carrey could make a good shot at Tommy Davis with the mad staring eyes, Kris Kristofferson could play Mark Bunker, and the real WBM could play a cameo as the scientology guy who pickets him (is it ‘Dan’?).
Seriously, though, Hoffman as LRH would be awesome.
I sure would like to see this happen but they better get ready for a lot of under handed dealings on trying to stop this movie.Being a ex-member of the sea-org.the makers of the movie would have to show the living conditions and hours of slave labor performed, giving the reality of the past and present would help the movie I believe.
I had always thought Michael McKean would end up playing LRH in any cinematic adaptation, simply because of the uncanny resemblance (IMO). But Mr. Hoffman would also be excellent.
At first I was like “okay that’s cool” but now I can really picture him in the role. He even looks like him.
Hi All! Hoffman would be great. I’ve been working on a script for a while now showing how cults work (mentioning no names), and thought it may be a good idea to have Tom Cruise play a guy, perhaps a famous movie star, who gets sucked into the cult because it was sort of trendy at the time, etc…., who experiences lots and lots of really bad pseudo-therapy by folks who have no idea about what they’re doing, I mean, no more than taking a few hours of “training” of sorts, and whom collect all sorts of secret data in the same way legit mental health workers do. However, unlike REAL mental health workers, who actually keep the personal things shared in therapy secret, and have to by law, the cult pseudo-therapists (PSTs we can refer to them as) hold it over the new members heads and can use it against them. You know, textbook blackmail. Anyway, eventually, Cruise would begin having doubts about the cult he had devoted himself to, but having coughed up all of his personal information, and knowing that it could all come out, tries to make himself really believe that the cult is good. He goes through intense internal struggle, but on some level just knows if he breaks it off, any or all of his “crimes” may somehow surface. He confronts the leader of the cult who knows that if Cruise quits the cult, and especially if he says bad things, it will probably be the final straw for the cult. Cruise starts to leave the leaders office giving the impression that he’s going to go public. Just then the leader drops a line that he ought to think twice about any such act. Cruise asks him what he means. He arrogantly starts threatening Cruise. And, well, we know Cruise and his propensity to fly off the handle with easy and grace…They begin to struggle. Cruise kills the leader by pushing him into a large statue of the cult founder, who happens to be holding a fishing pole with a stack of money on the end of the hook, which impales him. Cruise leaves and goes into hiding for a few days. However, given the extensive security which the cult has all around, it takes only a few hours to figure out who killed him. Cruise is found, confesses, goes to prison, writes a book, and gets rich again, and donates the money to XenuTV. The cult collapses, there are many people who suffer from nervous breakdowns, mental disorders, and all sorts of other psychological associated disorders common among folks who are victims of cult mental abuse. Most all former members begin therapy with psychiatrists and psychologists and most are cured.
The End
By the way, I used to work with ex-cult members in their deprogramming process. (I have graduate degrees in clinical psychology) A high School acquaintance of mine was lured into a cult, though not Scientology, and was kidnapped out, and all the rest. Scientology does, in fact, fulfill a great many criteria of qualifying as a cult.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Beautiful! A movie that is not about $cientology so the $cilons can have no legal objection. A movie that is about an obvious cult we can all recognize.
if they can get Mimi Rogers, Travolta (after he blows the cult), Beghe, Kidman, and (after she divorces Cruise) Katie Holmes on board this movie will be set.
It’s about damn time to make this movie.
“Hoffman would be superb as L. Ron Hubbard”.
Hoffman would be superb as Tinker Bell. Wouldn’t be my first choice, but he’d find a way…
It looks like Anderson isn’t doing an expose per se, but I hope he gets into some of Scn’s abuses, and makes sure the public knows what he’s referencing.