Venice Film Festival Sets ‘The Master' World Premiere For Sept 1; TIFF Confirmed As Well

Well, so much for Venice Festival director Alberto Barbera saying just three days ago “I didn’t mention the film. Nobody mentioned the film. It is not in any of our sections.” Because according to Deadline, "The Master" is now set to premiere at the festival in competition on Saturday night September 1st. So unless Paul manages to book a secret screening in Austin (or someplace) prior to this, it looks like this will be the World Premiere for the film, just under 2 weeks before it's scheduled to open in limited release in the U.S. The silver lining for those not attending Venice is that "it might well be part of the Toronto International Film Festival program as well." Great news since I'm already booked for TIFF. How about you, readers? Is anyone going to Venice? Or will you be jealously watching from the sidelines with us? (Thanks again to The Film Stage for the headsup.)

Update 10:08pm: The Wrap confirms that the film will indeed be shown in Toronto. Though as of now, The Weinstein Company and TIFF representatives have declined to comment. An earlier version of the LA Times story on the subject also confirmed the film for TIFF but that's now been corrected to say the film is only "likely" to premiere. They cited the delayed announcement as being due to the 70mm specifications, stating "In booking the film at the high-profile festivals, the Weinstein Co. faces some technical challenges, namely ensuring that the movie can be screened on a 70mm projector, since Anderson filmed the movie using 70mm." David Poland tweets that "The Master will play TIFF in 70mm at the Princes of Wales theater in the first 4 days of the festival" and that it will be presented as a "special screening."

Justin C. Chang from Variety also tweeted to us in regards to the Venice confusion saying, "A Venice fest source had said last week the film was in, but as a late addition, so we held off. Sorry for the confusion." Whether the film was held off initial releases for technical reasons (surely they would've known by now whether Venice or TIFF could present the film in 70mm) to generate excitement (it has been exciting, hasn't it?) or perhaps a difference of opinion behind-the-scenes on exactly how the film should debut, we're not sure yet. But neither TIFF, Venice nor The Weinstein Company have confirmed either of the aforementioned screenings yet, so it appears the cat may be out of the bag for any planned surprises.

FYI, we're a lot more active on Twitter than Facebook so if you like your news up-to-the-moment, that's where you want to be.

‘The Master' Moves Up To A September 14th Limited Release

We did not see this coming. Goodbye October 12th. Hello September 14.

Variety says (via The Film Stage):

The Weinstein Company is shuffling its awards-season deck, moving up Paul Thomas Anderson's Scientology-tinged religious drama "The Master" to Sept. 14 and pushing back Andrew Dominik's Brad Pitt starrer "Killing Them Softly" to Oct. 19.

"The Master" will now open in limited release against Disney's animated family pic "Finding Nemo 3D," Screen Gems' action horror sequel "Resident Evil: Retribution," Summit's teen drama "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and IFC Films' collegiate dramedy "Liberal Arts." Anderson's film will then expand to additional cities beginning Sept. 21, the day "Killing Them Softly" was originally skedded to open.

"The Master" figures to be a factor this awards season, with stars Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman expected to be major contenders for acting prizes, not to mention writer-director Anderson, who received multiple noms for his last pic, "There Will Be Blood."

Wow, wow, wow. 49 days.

So what does this mean? It means that the film will be open in limited release (probably NY/LA) before the start of the New York Film Festival and also before Fantastic Fest. So Paul wasn't kidding about not being crazy about the festival circuit. We can only imagine how he pulled this off with the Weinstein's, but bravo. Harvey spoke to The Huffington Post yesterday and offered the following (via @IronMcClung)...

In keeping with the party line, Weinstein declined to confirm the Scientology connection. "Paul says to me the movie is about a journey for soldiers after World War II – my own dad was one of those guys – and, you know, one of the things that happens to this soldier is he goes to a cult," he said. "Look, I mean, whatever, people are going to draw their own conclusions, and right now there are heated conclusions, and the Tom and Katie situation has exacerbated that. It’s going to be a controversial movie. But it’s a tour de force. I hope what doesn’t get lost is how wonderful the filmmaking is."

Asked if there were still a chance "The Master" could make its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off on September 5, Weinstein said it depends on whether Anderson could prepare a 70-millimeter print in time. "He’s a filmmaker, not a video filmmaker, and I really hope that doesn’t get lost in the controversy either. He’s really trying to preserve a lost art."

Not sure if we're really buying the "having a print ready in time" excuse but it's fun to play this game. It's still possible the film could be a late addition to TIFF (running Sept 6-16) and it does look like there will be some kind of Austin screening, whether that runs during Fantastic Fest (Sept 20-27) or as a standalone before the film opens is yet to be seen. If we had to guess we'd lean towards the latter. The good news is, no matter where you live, you'll probably be getting a look at the film a little sooner. We couldn't be more excited.

Stay tuned.

Why Hasn't ‘The Master' Shown Up On The Festival Circuit?

As each of the lineups have been announced for Cannes, TIFF and Venice, cinephiles have found themselves disappointed that "The Master" has yet to show up anywhere. We ran down the odds back in March using nothing but our own intuition but recently some more information has come to light which seems to change the game a bit. 

Commenter Blake pointed us to an interview with Alamo Drafthouse owner/Fantastic Fest programmer Tim League from back in 2008. The scrappy genre festival had managed to land "There Will Be Blood" when none of the prestigious festivals had. So how'd he do it? League explained,

"[Paul Thomas Anderson] doesn’t like to do traditional festivals and I assured him that if he came here he would be able to enjoy the movie; it would be with fans; and it wouldn’t be paparazzi. And it wasn’t. So he had a great time. But it wasn’t through the studio. He actually didn’t tell the studio until the day before."

We had figured this low-key approach might've been a one-off for 'Blood,' since his previous films had all done the festival circuit -- screening all over the place before their release dates -- but perhaps not. Personally we'd love to see the film with the Austin crowd, as opposed to say, a New York Film Festival one. League was coy with us when confronted with the evidence, tweeting "I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of contents of said blue cans," but signs do seem to point to a Fantastic Fest screening, whether exclusive or otherwise.

How Paul's strategy will fit in with The Weinstein Co.'s festival-centric Oscar campaigning is anybody's guess. But it will be very interesting to watch. As a Facebook commenter said, "I love the fact that P.T. is blowin' off these corporate schmooze fests. He marches to his own drummer. He will screen his movie when and where he wants." Well put, sir. Keep in mind this is just a little speculating on our part and it's still possible the film could show up at any one of the aforementioned festivals (as well as Telluride or NYFF) as a surprise or scheduled screening. We'll just have to wait and see.

FYI, we're a lot more active on Twitter than Facebook so if you like your news up-to-the-moment, that's where you want to be.

‘The Master' Not Playing Venice Or TIFF

Over the last two days the lineups for Toronto and Venice Film Festival's have been unveiled and it looks like neither one managed to score "The Master." Though TIFF seemed like a long shot in recent days, Venice came as more of a shock. We knew that the festival was chasing the film along with the new efforts from Terrence Malick and Brian DePalma, and while it looks like they got their other two choices, PTA's latest is the whale they just couldn't catch. Curiously (and probably frustratingly for those attending) Variety had initially announced "The Master" as being part of the lineup only to retract that statement shortly afterwards. (via @ThePlaylist) Anybody know what happened there? Please pass it along.

Update 8/27: Festival director Alberto Barbera says the film will not play the festival. “I didn’t mention the film. Nobody mentioned the film. It is not in any of our sections.” (via @manuyanezm)

Update 10:40am: A commenter informs us that Venice Festival Director "Alberto Barbera said at the press conference there is one more movie in competition that will be announced in the next few days." So it's still possible "The Master" could bet that film. Standby for heart-attack.

And then there were two. Back in March we ran down the odds on which festivals we thought were most likely to land the film and at the time gave the New York Film Festival the best odds while calling Fantastic Fest a long shot. Obviously some new information has come to light which seems to tip the scales in the other direction. Though it is possible, it doesn't seem likely that the film would play at both fests. (It should be noted that "Melancholia" did this last year but had also played at Cannes, TIFF, opened in France and premiered on VOD by that time too.) Because NYFF is so late in the year, it's really the last major festival and the selection is usually culled from Cannes favorites and a few repeats from Venice/TIFF with a few high profile premieres sprinkled in.


While we have no doubt they're trying to at least get a peek at "The Master" for inclusion in their lineup, their tastes can be a little baffling sometimes. (For example, in 2010 they scored Premieres for "Hereafter" and "The Tempest" while turning down "Black Swan," which was filmed at Lincoln Center where the festival is held.) So nothing is a sure thing. (Remember that "There Will Be Blood" did not premiere there in 2007...) Of course there's there's the possibility that PTA has decided to skip all the major fall festivals. Here's what we said back in March...

"There Will Be Blood" sidestepped all the major Fall festivals and still went on to being PTA's highest grossing and most acclaimed film. "The Master" isn't going to have any trouble stirring up attention and traveling the festival circuit also runs the risk of 'peaking too early. If the team behind the film just decide to have a couple of screenings (like they did for "There Will Be Blood" at The Castro in San Francisco and secretly in Austin), that would be just fine with us. With the curiosity surrounding the film - it appeared on nearly every site's Most Anticipated list for 2012 despite not even knowing at the time that it would be released this year - the festivals probably need the film more than it needs them.

As much as I'd like to see the film premiere at NYFF for selfish reasons (I live here), there's something kinda cool about Paul doing his own thing and premiering it in Austin instead. The NYFF lineup should be announced in the next few weeks, so we'll know for sure soon.

FYI, we're a lot more active on Twitter than Facebook so if you like your news up-to-the-moment, that's where you want to be.

Diving Deep Into ‘The Master' Trailer; Megan Ellison Says The Film 'Changed Her Life'; Screening At Fantastic Fest?

Today we have a big round-up of news for you. So if you were busy watching the trailer all weekend as we were, you may have missed a few exciting (if less seismic) developments. First off, in my other life over at The Playlist, I posted a somewhat lengthy trailer breakdown for those who might not be as up on the film as Cigs & Vines readers. I wanted to give a big thank you to our commenters (Tyler, anonymous, etc.) for all their help fleshing out the article. If you havent' read it yet, head on over and take a look and if there's anything else I left out, please let me know kindly in the comments.

Financier/patron saint of cinema Megan Ellison tweeted the following heartfelt thank you to Paul but since he doesn't have Twitter, we'll repost it here in hopes that it gets back to him.

Paul Thomas Anderson and The Master have changed my life in such a deeply profound way forever that all I can really say is, thank you.

Kirsten Dunst, who's dying to get into a PTA movie, also tweeted, "I'd give Joaquin Phoenix an oscar based on the trailer for "The Master."" to which Ellison responded "and you wouldn't be wrong to." A few other famous friends expressed their admiration of the trailer over the weekend as well including "LOST" co-creator Damon Lindelof ("I just watched THE MASTER trailer and I think it made me crazy.") and "Brick" writer/director Rian Johnson ("Dude I just watched THE MASTER trailer like 138 times in a row dude dude DUDE")

In other news, we recently heard whispers that a couple weeks ago Paul was in Austin testing the sound for "The Master" at the Alamo Drafthouse. Our sources say he had a soundboard set up testing levels and at the top of this post there's a picture (via Tumblr) to prove it. You can see Paul standing alongside his composer Jonny Greenwood, Alamo Drafthouse owner Tim League and a mysterious blue canister that may or may not contain the greatest film of 2012. Rumors are flying of a possible Fantastic Fest premiere as you'll remember "There Will Be Blood" had a secret screening/premiere there back in 2007.

Update 7/23: A commenter with the inside track says, "It was more than just sound tests. The finished film was screened for League weeks ago. It is already booked to play Fantastic Fest. Take that to the bank." Fantastic Fest runs September 20-27.


In other festival news, TIFF starts announcing their lineup on Tuesday and Venice has announced its opening night film with the rest of the lineup being announced in the coming weeks. We already know Venice is gunning for the film so we'll see if their efforts are successful.

A small but avid group of PTA fans has insisted they've spotted him in the trailer standing in the elevator just behind his principal cast. Despite a resemblance we have a hard time believing he'd place himself in such a distractingly obvious place in his own film as that just doesn't seem like his style. "Magnolia" cameos aside...

And finally, The Daily Beast posted a semi-spoiler-ish article where a Scientologist read through the old leaked draft of the screenplay and compared notes between Scientology and The Cause. Short version: lots of similarities.

FYI, we're a lot more active on Twitter than Facebook so if you like your news up-to-the-moment, that's where you want to be.

Official Trailer For Paul Thomas Anderson's ‘The Master' Released

Fresh off the recent release of the teaser poster and, with the film's release now just a little under 3 months away, the Weinstein Company and Annapurna Films tweeted that the first full length official trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" was going to drop today at 8pm EST. If you follow our Twitter account, you'd have been expecting this as our detective skills are clearly on point. Waste no more time skimming what I have to say, select 1080p then press play. #internalrhymescheme

Stay tuned to Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and updates. 

‘The Master' Gets A Beautiful, Enigmatic Teaser Poster

Oh yes, folks. It's real.

(via HuffPo)

Stay tuned to Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and updates. 

‘The Master' Is Finished; Has Been Rated R

Probably fairly obvious to anyone who has seen Paul's previous films but "The Master" has also been rated R. The naughty bits are for "sexual content, graphic nudity and language" according to Box Office Mojo (via @angel_glands). This also means that the film has been completed and is (in theory) ready to be screened...

86 more days.

Stay tuned to Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and updates. 

Is ‘The Master' Heading To Venice?; Harvey Weinstein Talks Working With PTA

Over the weekend, The Playlist came across upon an Italian newspaper called La Repubblica who ran down a preview of the Venice Film Festival (August 29-September 8) festival which included several notable titles like the new Terrence Malick film "To The Wonder," "A Place Beyond The Pines" and most notably "The Master." We pegged the fest back in March as a possibility for a premiere and heard as recently as May that they were actively pursuing the film. While nothing is confirmed yet (the lineup isn't announced officially until July 26) it does seem like it's a strong possibility. Whether the film will make a showing at TIFF or NYFF is still unknown as well but those should also firm up their selections in the next month or so.

Update: On the latest episode of "The Treatment with Elvis Mitchell" podcast, Harvey Weinstein stopped by to promote his latest box office smash, the French production "The Intouchables" and towards the end of the episode got into some other films he's got on tap for later this year which led to "The Master."  (via xixax)

Elvis Mitchell: You’ve got a really big year coming up. You’ve got films from two of the most important auteurs in the business: you’ve got Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master,” which is a look at religion that is sure to stir up a few picketers in theaters when it plays and you’ve got “Django Unchained” from Quentin Tarantino.

Harvey Weinstein: Which will do the same.

Elvis Mitchell: Yes it will do the same. Neither of these films are musical comedies so they won’t stir the kind of laughs that “The Intouchables” will. But these are the kinds of films that in some way feel like they’re getting back to this need to stir up controversy that I associate with what you’ve done in the past.

Harvey Weinstein: It isn’t the need to stir up controversy, it’s the need to support filmmakers who want to have a voice and they want an unfiltered, uncensored voice. You know, I’ve always wanted to work with Paul Thomas Anderson but I don’t think there’s any accident why we got together on this. Megan Ellison is a brilliant producer but I think the themes of this movie and the subject matter, you need somebody who is going to step in front of this and be fearless about it. And I think that’s a calling card that we fit as a company. And that’s in our DNA; be it Miramax or The Weinstein Company. We are them. And I think in Quentin’s situation, [the film is] wildly entertaining but I think Quentin’s dealing with a lot of political issues and doing master work. You know, people talk about a Golden Age of cinema. Throw David O. Russell in there with “The Silver Linings Playbook,” which is such a wonderful movie, [he’s] a great auteur, or Andrew Dominik [director of “Killing Them Softly”], the most stubborn Australian filmmaker ever, but talented nonetheless. Really talented. And [John] Hillcoat’s “Lawless,” we have a number of great auteurs.

We also noticed that it's been about a month since the last teaser for "The Master" was released (6/19), which was almost exactly a month since the one prior (5/19). Might we see a third teaser sometime this week? Only time will tell. We're getting very close now, just 88 more days until the film's US release.

Stay tuned to Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and updates. 

‘Breaking Bad' Star Aaron Paul ♥'s PTA; Paul Dano Has Seen Bits Of ‘The Master'

We know that PTA already has hisa fair amount of fans across the industry -- Filmmaker John Milius recently expressed his admiration -- and today we can add another name to that list: Aaron Paul. The actor is probably best known for playing Jesse Pinkman on AMC's "Breaking Bad," which is currently making a strong case for being the best show on TV. In a recent interview with GQ to promote the upcoming fifth season, the Emmy winning actor dropped the following plea.

GQ: What other directors [do you admire]?
Aaron Paul: Rian Johnson's fresh in mind. He's just so brilliant and such an incredible writer. Or speaking of writer-slash-directors: Paul Thomas Anderson.

GQ: Yeah, wow. I think he's the best there is.
Aaron Paul: He's completely fucking unbelievable. I don't understand how he does it.

GQ: What's the plan after Breaking Bad wraps?
Aaron Paul: Not an idea. Maybe start accosting Paul Thomas Anderson. Seriously: turn this interview into a love letter to Paul Thomas Anderson, and kind of beg him to put me in a film. I don't care if it's as an extra, I'll do whatever. 

Side note/name drop: I met Mr. Paul at the Season 3 premiere party for "Breaking Bad" in NYC and (in addition to being an Emmy winning actor), he was an incredibly nice dude! So there you have it, we've done our part. If you weren't already aware the 5th Season of 'Breaking Bad" premieres this Sunday on AMC and judging by the first two episodes, it's going to be cra-mazing.

In other Paul related news, @TheFamilianaire dropped us a line on Twitter to let us know that like Emily Watson, Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Sr., Paul Dano had also seen some of "The Master."

Just met Paul Dano at a screening for Ruby Sparks. Said his "buddy" PTA has screened him a few bits from The Master. [He said] "PTA's the master", then went on a tangent about how The Girl Next Door taught kids how to masturbate.

So it appears that much of the inner circle has been privy to quite a bit of the film. Now if we could just find our invite...

Stay tuned to Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and updates. 

Scientologists Reportedly Unhappy With ‘The Master'

A while back we heard that Tom Cruise (who has remained friends with PTA since "Magnolia") had been shown "The Master" and that he "had issues" with it. Yesterday, in light of his recent divorce, the NY Daily News did some digging (or speculating) by intimating that the Church of Scientology was unhappy with certain aspects of the film.

A source familiar with Paul Thomas Anderson ’s film about the founder of a Scientology-like religious movement tells us officials of the controversial church group “hit the roof” when they learned — presumably through Cruise — that the movie contains a scene which suggests the belief system was little more than a product of the leader’s fertile imagination.

According to our insider, one scene that didn’t sit well with Cruise takes place on a patio where Joaquin Phoenix, who plays Freddie Sutton, a troubled drifter who becomes Dodd’s right-hand disciple, watches Dodd pontificate about the religion he has created.

During the scene, the source says, another character close to the founder turns to Phoenix and says of Dodd, “You know he’s making it up as he goes along.”
Referring to the actual Church of Scientology, our source says, “Tom Cruise’s people are grumbling about this line — amongst others — but Anderson is not taking it out.”

Cruise’s spokeswoman declined to comment on this story. Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw responded: “No one in the church has seen the film, and we have no comment. ”

Given the media circus surrounding the TomKat divorce right now it's hard to tell the fact from fiction but it certainly wouldn't surprise us.


Update: A commenter points out that the article also refers to Phoenix's character as Sutton (not Quell as he was updated to later on) which could mean that the entire thing is bunk or just that their fact checking wasn't so up to date.

The one thing I couldn't help but thinking when I was in LA last week was that the timing is perfect for shining a spotlight on the film now just 3 months away. Apparently Kristopher Tapley was thinking the exact same thing and wrote a piece about it over at Hitfix. 

"If indeed the TomKat thing plays out in such dramatic hues with Scientology front and center, it could be an interesting turn of events, establishing "The Master" as the zeitgeist play of the season."

If you follow us on Twitter you know that we crossed the threshold into double-digits over the holiday with now only 94 days until the film's US release. And for those of you who have been asking, IMDB lists "The Master" as having a November 9th release date (or 9th November, whichever you prefer) which is not too much longer to wait.

Stay tuned to Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and updates. 

Revisiting Little Boston By Visiting Big McGuire

If you've ever wondered if Paul Thomas Anderson can/cannot open a gate, the wait ends today: Our dear friends The AV Club sent out Kyle Ryan to interview David Williams, manager of Marfa's Mcguire Ranch who was heavily involved with the filming of There Will Be Blood and has alot of new/interesting things to share with you. In Kyle's words:

In charge of all of it was David Williams, McGuire Ranch manager and the production’s go-to guy for pretty much everything. Need to hose down the roads so they’re passable? Talk to David. Need supplies? Talk to David. Need to cast another part in the film? Hey, David can do it. (Williams appeared in several scenes opposite Daniel Day-Lewis.) Even after production wrapped, his There Will Be Blood duties continued: Once the film came out and quickly earned awards-season buzz, Williams found himself answering questions from reporters and frequently taking them on tours of shooting locations around the ranch. It happens less frequently now, but here it is, six years later, and he’s still doing it.

You can read the full write-up which has a good chunk of extra anecdotes about production. There, we distracted you for another 24 hours while we wait patiently for TMZ to stop posting spoilers via TomKat divorce details the Master.