Michael Haneke's Amour and Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master lead London critics' nominations. Also in Tuesday's news round-up, Toronto critics name their picks for 2012; Richard Gere is among more honorees at the upcoming Palm Springs International Film Festival; Bully is set for Producers Guild honors; and Ricky Gervais is eyeing the Muppets sequel.
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James Franco as Freddie Quell? It almost happened, the actor revealed during a panel at the Austin Film Festival, until The Master director, Paul Thomas Anderson, asked Franco one little question: "Do you feel like you can do this?"
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Joaquin Phoenix has a collection of awards nominations and wins that many actors would look upon with envy, but he is calling, "bullshit." The actor won applause at the Toronto International Film Festival for his role in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master and he even picked up a Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival last month (shared with Philip Seymour Hoffman). But the actor said he thinks the whole process is the "stupidest thing in the whole world."
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Also in Monday morning's round-up of news briefs, a Fox studio co-head prepares to leave, consolidating leadership at the movie giant. Author Salman Rushdie says a controversial book he published in '88 would "never be published today." And remembering film professional/journalist Sandy Mandelberger.
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The Master, the new film from Paul Thomas Anderson, is the story of a spiritual duel — the battle for a soul — though only one of the participants perceives it as such. Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the mystic of the title, is the leader of a young movement not unlike what evolved into a certain real life one well entrenched in the entertainment industry. It's 1950, and he finds a stowaway on his ship, a drunk vagabond who claims to be an able-bodied seaman and who asks for work. The man's name is Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), he fought in the war, and he's not mentally stable, either because of his experiences in battle or because stability was just never meant for him.
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There's a scene in the Paul Thomas Anderson's enthralling new film The Master where Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) — founder and leader of a cult-like movement called The Cause — instructs his "guinea pig and protege," the aptly named Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) to face another man hurling taunts and insults at him without losing his hair-trigger temper.
I felt like I was being put through a similar test on Tuesday night when, after being invited to a hastily arranged 70-millimeter advance screening of The Master at the wonderful Ziegfeld Theater in Manhattan, I arrived at the will-call table to find a crowd that, had they been carrying torches, would have been at home in the angry villagers scene of Frankenstein. more »
If there is any disappointment or bitterness that The Master was set to receive the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival today, only for the top prize there to be "re-assigned" due to a rule limiting the number of awards one title can receive, then director Paul Thomas Anderson did not show it this afternoon at the Toronto International Film Festival where the film is having its North American premiere. Anderson along with actress Amy Adams and producer JoAnne Sellar spoke with reporters at the festival along with TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey.
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Every frame of this simple but mesmerizing snippet of P.T. Anderson's The Master throbs with an unnatural hum - in this case, punctuated by the animalistic grunting of Joaquin Phoenix as he books it down a pier in the San Francisco Bay, a panting so odd and startling it jarred my cat out of his sleep, the strangest look on his face. Is there something in Phoenix's by all accounts bravura performance that vibrates on some feline, feral frequency?
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Thanks to the cajoling of a local critic, Chicago cinephiles got an advance look at Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master on Thursday night at a special 70 mm screening of the highly anticipated feature.
The sold-out benefit screening took place at Chicago's Art Deco landmark, the Music Box Theatre, which is the only movie house in the Windy City capable of projecting 70 mm film stock. more »
The Toronto International Film Festival added three Galas and 18 Special Presentations including eight World Premieres including dozens in its Contemporary World Cinema to its massive lineup Tuesday. Paul Andrew Williams' A Song For Marion with Vanessa Redgrave and Terence Stamp will close the festival September 16th. New work from Dan Algrant, Paul Thomas Anderson, Dante Ariola, Yvan Attal, Susanne Bier, Nick Cassavetes, Daniele Ciprì, Lee Daniels, Brian De Palma, Bahman Ghobadi, Harmony Korine, Patrice Leconte, Spike Lee, Scott McGehee, Claude Miller, Henry-Alex Rubin, Walter Salles, Valeria Sarmiento, Pablo Trapero, Peter Webber join the 2012 lineup. Today's additions bring the final tally of TIFF Galas to 20, and the final number of Special Presentations to 70 including 49 World Premieres.
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After much speculation, the Venice Film Festival officially said Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master will join the event's Competition as its 18th title. Organizers of the 69th annual event taking place August 29th to September 8th, added four more titles in all Wednesday to the festival's roster.
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As breathlessly reported by Variety's Jeff Sneider via Twitter: "Ladies and gentlemen, The Master primed for limited release on Sept. 14, will expand the following weekend!" The Weinstein Co. will release early in prime awards season moving the pic up from an October release, rolling the Philip Seymour Hoffman-starrer wide on September 21. The bad news for Austin, Texas film geeks: The timing seems to contradict speculation that Anderson's hotly anticipated pic might debut at Fantastic Fest, which runs September 20-27, though it may still screen there post-limited release. A Venice, late Toronto, or Telluride premiere is likely. [Variety]
A war veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) with a "nervous condition" finds himself entrenched in a cult — if not a religious cult, at least a cult of personality — built around a charismatic leader (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master. At long last, after a series of enigmatic teases, the first full trailer has hit the web offering more than just abstract, beguiling peeks at the rumored Scientology drama. So how much L. Ron Hubbard is there in Hoffman's Master?
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In the latest installment of One-Sheet Wonder, a column going deep on the best, worst, weirdest and other milestones of contemporary movie-poster art, Movieline takes a look at the new poster for Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master. — Ed.
The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson's enigmatic follow-up to There Will Be Blood, has been trailed by speculation and assumption for months — Is it about Scientology? Is Philip Seymour Hoffman portraying L. Ron Hubbard in a biopic capacity? — and every question has been met with denials and mystery. But each new marketing piece sheds more light on what we'll get. After two beautiful, beguiling teaser trailers, a beautiful, beguiling one-sheet for Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master debuted today over at Ain't It Cool News. But like the clips before it, the poster tells us almost nothing about the movie. (Or do they?)
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Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master continues to intrigue with the latest teaser revealing a look at Philip Seymour Hoffman as the enigmatic figure Joaquin Phoenix encounters — a mustachioed character who, in a new teaser entitled "Hopelessly Inquisitive," describes himself as "a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher" and stands poised in startling contrast to the skulking Phoenix.
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