‘The Master' Teaser Trailer Has Arrived

Finally, the teaser for "The Master" (yes, that is what the title is) has arrived and yes, we got fucking chills watching it. The Weinstein Company confirms that it was (much like the "There Will Be Blood" teaser back in 2007) cut by Paul. Sound off in the comments below.

Written and directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Thomas Anderson (the acclaimed director of, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia and Boogie Nights), this story stars Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote) and Academy Award-nominee Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line). Set in America in the years following World War II, a charismatic intellectual (Hoffman) launches a faith-based organization and taps a young drifter (Phoenix) as his right-hand man. But as the faith begins to gain a fervent following, the onetime vagabond finds himself questioning the belief system he has embraced, and his mentor. A truly one-of-a-kind drama, which promises magnetic virtuoso performances, the film marks the fifth collaboration between Anderson and Hoffman, following Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch Drunk Love.

Paul was even kind enough to drop us a line first thing this morning with a link to the trailer/site. Take it away, sir...

cj -

Ummmmmm. GULP. (double heart attack..) slip, slurp.

here you go,,,,,

themasterfilm.com

paul.

Check out the photos from the teaser in our Facebook gallery and stay tuned to Twitter for the latest news and updates.

First Footage From ‘The Master' To Unspool For Critics At Cannes Tomorrow

Well, we're kicking ourselves after all for not making plans for Cannes this year as it looks like The Weinstein Co. is planning to unveil the first footage from "The Master" to critics tomorrow night at the fest. Thanks to a tweet by First Showing, we now know that footage from the film will screen alongside selected bits from Quentin Tarantino's (still filming) "Django Unchained" and David O. Russell's "The Silver Linings Playbook," both also highly anticipated projects. 

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

Invites you to celebrate
The 65th Cannes Film Festival

Monday, May 21st 2012
Cocktails from 7-9 pm

To introduce FIRST LOOK footage of
The highly anticipated films

THE MASTER
THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
DJANGO UNCHAINED

This is obviously a big deal as it's the first time any frame of film will be seen publicly, well, outside of a few frames. So far Paul has only been showing the film (or bits of it anyway) to friends/family in his inner circle who have said it's both "great" and "incredible". While First Showing isn't sure yet if they'll be allowed to discuss their reactions to the presentation, we'd have to imagine that showing press (as opposed to buyers) a bunch of footage would probably be for the express purpose of not keeping a lid on it. It should go without saying that if any Cigs & Vines readers are able to attend and pass us along a detailed report of what you see, that would be just fantastic.

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

PTA Joins Robert Downey Sr. In Conversation For The Criterion Collection

Sometimes when it rains, it pours. After quite an eventful morning that saw Mr. FortyFPS and myself awake at 3:20am to decipher the cryptic email from Paul, we've been passed another little jewel. According to a post on The Criterion Collection Facebook page, PTA shot a series of videos with Robert Downey Sr. which they'll be unveiling in the coming weeks.

For those of you who don't know Robert Downey Sr. is (yes, Jr.'s father and also) the writer and director of a some truly bizarre and wonderful films including the satire "Putney Swope" which has long been a favorite of PTA's. (Fun fact: Buck Swope from "Boogie Nights" was named as a nod to the film!) Paul said the film showed him “you could be really punk rock in a movie. You could do anything. It didn’t have to make sense. As long as it was funny or funny to the guy who was making it, it would come across as exciting.” This video series is presumably to help promote Criterion's upcoming 5 film set of Downey's work entitled Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr. We'll keep our eyes peeled for those videos and post them here as they arrive as I'm sure our eagle-eyed readers will be the first to let us know. (Thanks @HybridVigorFilm!)  

Update 5/17: You can now watch the first video below:

 

Update 5/16:  During a completely unrelated Downey Sr. interview with the Projection Booth podcast (about the 38 minute mark), the subject of PTA came up when he was asked about filmmakers who have been influenced by his work. "Well, Paul I've known a long time," Downey Sr. said. "I knew him before he made a feature. In fact, he's going to do the interview with me for the [Criterion] box set. Yeah, he's a good guy. I've seen 90 minutes of his new movie ["The Master"] too, it's great." Looks like PTA is continuing to show the unfinished film to his close circle of friends as you'll remember Emily Watson had seen 30 minutes back in December. This also means the film is probably running quite a bit over 90 minutes as it seems unlikely everything but the final few minutes would've been screened. (For reference TWBB: 158 min, PDL: 95 min, MAG: 189 min, BOOGIE: 156 min, H8: 102 min.)

Continuing his kind words about Paul he said, "He's an interesting character. He's actually the West Coast Marty Scorsese in a way, he knows every film that was ever shot. He's one of those guys...In fact he asked me if he could use the firecracker scene [from "Putney Swope"] in "Boogie Nights," I said 'Of course.' I like that film." Also of interest is that a few years ago Paul had apparently been talking to Downey about potentially writing something based on events from his life. "He was interested in my teenage years when I was in and out of prison and the army. And I think he thought at one time that that kinda stuff might be interesting. He's heard a lot of stories from me. I remember talking about that. He's talked about it other times but he's got a lot of thoughts on his mind, he's always thinking." You can listen to the entire thing over at The Projection Booth. (via xixax).


Oh and for those of you who are curious we posted this (slightly better looking) blow-up of that 65mm frame to Twitter where you can just make out The Master dancing into the next room while bystanders clap for him. To the side is a piano & a woman playing an upright bass. Much more to come.


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

EXCLUSIVE: 65mm Filmstrip Reveals First Look At Philip Seymour Hoffman As ‘The Master'; Film Still Being Edited

Just when you thought your May 15th was going to come and go without a kick: We here at the Vines can pass along the first official update on The Master direct from Paul Thomas Anderson as well as the first image of the film, kind of...the floor is yours, sir:

CJ -
good evening.  it's been so long
and you've been so patient, thought
i'd fill you in on where we're
at with it now: 

 

These shots include our lovely
Negative Cutter, Simone, imported
all the way from France to cut 65mm
negative.   She does it all with a pair
of scissors from Staples.  

I'll have more to share in the
coming days/weeks/months.  Hope
you're well. Thank you for all the support. 

See you soon.
paul.

Click any of those thumbnails to see the full sized versions.

And, because hitting CTRL + OPTION + APPLE + 8 takes alot of effort, I have close cropped the 65" filmstrip and reversed/color corrected it into an educated guess at the look. The image appears to be a Phil Hoffman as the Master.

So it seems the film is still being worked on, or these were archival images to get you pre-heated for whatever is dropping next, which you will find here first. Follow us on Twitter and we'll warn you ahead of time about things and reward you in various ways.

American Cinematographer Looks Back At ‘Boogie Nights' & ‘Magnolia' With DP Robert Elswit

The latest issue of American Cinematographer has an interesting little article called "Tales Of Ordinary Madness" in which cinematographer Robert Elswit looks back at the making of "Boogie Nights" and "Magnolia" with Paul. No real news but a good fun read anyway and as you can see above, an excellent picture of PTA in his pajama bottoms. Highly complimentary quote from Elswit below:

“Paul is one of the few people I’ve worked with that has a poetic temperament. That allows him to do things in his films where you know the result will be more than the sum of its parts. It’s a combination of the way we shoot it and light the picture, the way it’s performed and edited, the way everything resonates with everything else.Each scene is doing more than just telling a story; it’s doing something you can’t put into words. And that puts him, I think, in the land of people like Bergman, Kurosawa, Ozu and Ford.”

 You can read the whole thing if you're a magazine subscriber. (Thanks to our readers @jblots, @damitago, @mertsrocket for their help!)

All quiet on "The Master" front except for this nifty fanmade poster that recently came across our desks by illustrator Alex Fellows... unless someone closer to production than we are wants to drop us a tidbit. Our inbox is always open. 

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

‘The Rules Of Daniel Day Lewis' By Paul F. Tompkins

We caught very funny comedian/podcaster/"There Will Be Blood" cameo-maker Paul F. Tompkins a few months back taping his comedy album at the beautiful Bell House in Brookyln. While the comedian had countless hilarious bits, two should be of particular interest to Cigs&Vines readers. One was an extended anecdote about a table read for "Magnolia" where he was seated next to the biggest movie star in the world while the other features Tompkins talking about briefly sharing the screen with Daniel Day Lewis as Prescott in 'TWBB' (which you can watch a preview of below).

Comedy Central Stand-Up
Get More: Jokes,Joke of the Day,Funny Jokes

Tompkins was kind enough to reach out to the site and let us know that his new comedy special "Laboring Under Delusions" airs tomorrow night, Saturday at 11pm on Comedy Central. If you like the special you can also purchase it at Amazon for just $9.99 which includes stuff not in the broadcast version (like his hilarious "Magnolia" table read story.) Tompkins also performs a regular show at Largo, tapes a very funny monthly podcast (The Pod F Tompkast) and should he come to your town, it would be well worth your while to check him out.

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

‘The Master' NOT Playing Cannes

After weeks of speculation, the Cannes lineup was finally announced this morning and "The Master" was nowhere to be found. Hate to say we told you so but we assumed that May would be a little too early to let the cat out of the bag and most of you on Twitter and Facebook seemed to agree with us. We'd like to say we knew it all along but have to admit we got a little bit freaked out towards the end when we started to hear substantial rumors saying otherwise. The NYTimes profile arriving the day before the announcement certainly didn't help us sleep last night and neither did that cryptic tweet from 'Master' producers Annapurna Pictures saying only "Cannes." So what were they on about, then? That was to hint at two of their other films which are both in competition: "Lawless" (formerly "The Wettest County In The World") from director John Hillcoat ("The Proposition") and "Killing Them Softly" (formerly "Cogan's Trade") from director Andrew Dominik ("The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"). So that's settled and it looks like thankfully the Cigs & Vines team will not have to figure out last minute arrangements to France.

Well, for now. While it's still possible the film could be added as a late addition to the fest, it seems even less likely at this point. While that may be disappointing news for those readers attending, we're sure you'll have a great time anyway. The lineup features new films from David Cronenberg, Wes Anderson, Jacques Audiard, Michael Haneke and Jeff Nichols among many more. For the rest of us, there are only 175 days to go until October 12th.

Check out our "The Master" cast and follow the entire history of the project here.

Stay tuned to Cigs & Red Vines on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news and updates.

The NY Times Talks ‘The Master'

We're not sure what prompted them but the NYTimes have just posted an article on "The Master," despite having very little new information on the film. The main thrust seems to be the parallels to Scientology -- which isn't exactly news since the first screenplay has been floating around for years -- but there are a few juicy second-hand sources that make it a pretty good read. Paul is still declining to speak publicly about the film and security around the production is very tight.

Somewhere in Los Angeles Mr. Anderson, 41, is now finishing what will be his sixth feature film. Fiercely protective of his process, he has declined to speak publicly about the movie. But the details suggest a story inspired by the founding of Scientology, and that has provoked industry whispers. With that church’s complicated Hollywood ties and high-profile adherents like Tom Cruise, a film even loosely based on it will guarantee discussion upon its release, on Oct. 12, by the Weinstein Company.

Even the headline, "Filmmaker’s Newest Work Is About ... Something, Paul Thomas Anderson Film May Be About Scientology," is hilariously vague but we've parsed out there are a few bits of info for those of you (like us) who are news starved on the project.

‘The Master' Playing Cannes? Not So Fast...

We didn't think we'd have to address this since we've already written about it a few times on Twitter but there still seems to be some confusion floating around out there so here we go. Earlier this week the supposed lineup from Cannes was "leaked"early and put online as reported by a handful of other outlets. We were skeptical from the outset and it was indeed quickly confirmed as a fake by Cannes head Thierry Frémaux. So, while it's still possible "The Master" will play Cannes, we won't know for sure until April 19 when the full lineup is announced. Until then, count the days until October 12. (191).

Updated 4/5: Roger Friedman at Forbes (via The Playlist) confirms our suspicions that the film will not be ready in time for a Cannes debut. "“The Master” is certainly not ready, I am told," he says cryptically. Though again, we won't know for sure for another 2 weeks.

Updated 4/17: Variety says "Paul Thomas Anderson's 'The Master,' is eyeing a fall festival bow" & won't be heading to Cannes.

Check out our updated "The Master" cast and follow the entire history of the project here.

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