Paul Thomas Anderson, best known for directing three awesome movies and Magnolia, will be reteaming with probably the best actor in Hollywood, Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Anderson has written an untitled period drama [tee hee! *makes queef sound with mouth* -Ed.] that is set up at Universal. Hoffman, who has played supporting roles in most of Anderson’s past films, would this time be the centerpiece. Hoffman will play “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 twenty-something 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.
Anderson’s treatment of religion was cynical in “There Will Be Blood.” Here, the scrutiny isn’t specifically directed toward faith-based movements like Scientology or Mormonism that are newcomers compared to established religions. Anderson explores the need to believe in a higher power, the choice of which to embrace, and the point at which a belief system graduates into a religion. [BFDMemo]
I thought the most insightful thing about Anderson’s cynical treatment of religion in his last movie was the way the priest got beat to death with a bowling pin. Suck on that one, Scopes monkey trial. I’m not so much anti-religion as I am pro-movie violence, and holy God did I squeal like a schoolgirl during that scene. I don’t think I’ve ever received so many horrified looks walking out of a theater, not even when Alexis Richards let me fingerblast her during Last King of Scotland. Man, that chick was a slut, even for runaway.
Here’s Louis C.K. on the Tonight Show last night doing some bits you’ve probably already heard and enjoy (I can tell you’re all hip because of the scarves), but more importantly, at the 4:30 mark the interview starts, and he tells a story from the set of The Invention of Lying with Ricky Gervais. It’s about how he was doing a scene with John Hodgman and he thought of a really hilarious Hodgman burn an so he told everyone about it, but then… well, let’s just say it doesn’t go well. It’s strange, because usually Jewish comedians are so full of social grace and devil-may-care charm. Anyway, after that he shows a clip from the movie, and it looks pretty good, and Philip Seymour Hoffman kindareminds me of Eyebrow Kitty. Haha, good story, Vince.
(sorry, foreigners, if you can find the clip anywhere else besides Hulu, please send it).
This is the trailer for Mary and Max, which recently opened the Sundance Film Festival and has possibly my favorite line from a trailer since Black Dynamite:
“In America, babies are laid by Catholic nuns. If you’re an atheist, they’re laid by dirty lonely prostitutes.”
What can I say, I’m a sucker for dirty lonely prostitutes. The film’s about a lonely 8-year-old in Australian (voiced by Toni Collette) and her pen pal, a fat, 44-year-old Jew with Asperger’s living in New York City. Believe it or not, that’s Philip Seymour Hoffman doing the voice. Coincidentally, ass burgers are also what your mother eats. *word association rimshot*
[via Collider]
This is the first trailer for The Boat That Rocked, about a British pirate radio station operating from a ship in the North Sea in the 60s. It’s got a great cast – Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Nick Frost – and the trailer was going great until about the thirty second mark. That’s when someone walks into a lamp pole. And it’s not like he’s distracted or looking the other way and then all of a sudden, pole – he’s just walking up the block looking straight at the pole and then he just walks right into it, and it makes a big dong sound. And we’re supposed to laugh. It’s 2008, and a joke that they not only wrote and filmed, but thought was so good that they used as a representation of the rest of the movie, was about a guy who hits his head on a pole.
“Hmmm, we need a joke on page 63 of the script. It’s been a while since anything funny happened.”
“Okay. How bout if Bob slips on a banana peel? No wait, we’ll drop an anvil on his head. Yeah, an anvil. With a horn sound effect?”
“You’re f-cking fired.”
Paris Hilton has joined the cast of director Todd Solondz’ upcoming sequel to his 1998 movie Happiness, and while this isn’t exactly good news, it does give me yet another excuse to clips from the original. In the one above, I think Philip Seymour Hoffman might have actually meant to call Paris Hilton. God, if there were any justice in the world he would’ve won five Oscars for this. I’ve got a longer clip after the jump – do yourself a favor and fast forward to the 2:41 mark and watch him deliver one of the best lines in all of cinema.
