Paul Thomas Anderson’s troubled The Master, a film about the charismatic leader of a modern faith-based organization that is patently not Scientology (but which is totally Scientology), now appears to be postponed indefinitely, according to would-be star Jeremy Renner. In an interview with Total Film (excerpted at The Playlist), Renner said that the film had entered rehearsals with Anderson and Philip Seymour Hoffman—who plays the L. Ron Hubbard-esque leader of a new religion known as The Cause—but that “we kept coming up against a wall that we couldn't overcome. Or at least Paul couldn't overcome.” It’s the latest and apparently most insurmountable obstacle the film has faced, the most recent being Universal bailing on the project last spring. Since then The Master had been picked up River Road, but it now appears to be well and truly dead. It’ll be interesting to see whether similar “walls” come up against Kevin Spacey’s own seemingly Scientology-based HBO series. Not that we're suggesting there is a reluctance to anger Scientologists in Hollywood! That would be silly.
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