James Franco Almost In ‘The Master'; New Interviews With Phoenix, Hoffman & PTA

Here is your weekend news round-up (which should already be old news to everyone who follows us on Twitter):

Joaquin Phoenix gave a rare and in-depth interview to Elvis Mitchell at Interview Magazine where he spoke candidly about "The Master," working with Paul & (the quote heard round the internet) how the Oscars are bullshit. Read it here.

EW also reports (via The Playlist) that Paul had been talking to James Franco about the role of Freddie but that he didn't think the actor was "scared" enough of the role. Unclear when this might have been (post-Renner, pre-Phoenix seems likely) but very interesting nonetheless. Here's what Franco said:

“Paul Thomas Anderson was getting ready to make the Master and he called me and we met. And we talked and we ended up meeting for coffee. We didn’t talk about the Master but I met him to chat. And then he kept calling me and he wanted to talk and talk but I didn’t know what he wanted to talk about because we’d always just kind of bulls— on the phone. So then when he started talking about the role he said ‘Do you feel like you can do this?’ And I said ‘Yeah, totally. Look, I think you’re like the best American director. I feel confident. I know I can do this.’ And he said to me ‘But I want this to scare you. I want this role, going on this journey to scare you.’ And I was like ‘Scare?! I know I can do it.” Franco now had the laughing audience in the Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental ballroom in the palm of his hand. “And so, incredible movie, needless to say I didn’t get the part. I guess I wasn’t scared enough or something, or whatever reason I didn’t get it. And then when I saw Joaquin in that movie I realized ‘Oh, he wanted me to like lose my mind.’ And so I guess that’s just to say I usually don’t get scared of roles.

Variety has a forthcoming interview with PTA which will be released in several parts (hopefully soon) but they decided to post a small preview in light of Joaquin's Oscar-gate comments (despite PTA haven given the interview beforehand). We will definitely keep you posted on that.

Reuters also has a quick chat with Philip Seymour Hoffman who describes his character as "a bull in a China shop." He also once again denies that he was attempting to portray a version of L. Ron Hubbard. "It is pretty clear we made choices to make sure that the way I behave, the way I talk, it is all very different from L. Ron Hubbard ... One person's religion is another person's cult. We know that. And so we didn't want to be too on the nose about it ... Ultimately it was about creating a unique person that was a piece of fiction." Read it here.

Update 10/22: Esquire also has a great Q&A with PSH where he reflects on "Magnolia" calling it "a smorgasbord of pleasure, that movie. Filmed pleasures." Read it here.

There was also a press conference for the film in LA on Thursday 10/18 which we're still looking for audio from. Hopefully someone can pass it along.

This is your last week to enter our Gone To China Contest to win a copy of the soundtrack & a poster!

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