Oscar Outlook 2012: The Master

PT Anderson is one of those auteurish directors who appeared to be putting greater lengths of time between subsequent films--that is, until this year.  TWC will release The Master this fall matching the five years it took There Will Be Blood to come out after Punch Drunk Love.  While Philip Seymour Hoffman is FAR from one of my favorite actors (I prefer him in understated supporting roles like The Ides of March), and Joaquin Phoenix has become a joke after "the joke" he pulled during his "retirement" as an actor (did you know he went on a much longer six-year hiatus in his teens before debuting under his original name, leaving his nickname Leaf behind him, in To Die For?), I LOVE Amy Adams (who doesn't?).  But, will this be a case of Adams just wanting to have worked with all of these artists, or was there a worthy script at the core of her decision?  The story is being touted in the media as a veiled examination/attack on Scientology.

Rami Malek

Like most of his films, Anderon impressively wrote the original screenplay, as well as produced.  Leslie Jones (who got nominated for The Thin Red Line and worked with Anderson on Punch Drunk Love) and Peter McNulty (who assisted on Blood) edited.  Mihai Malaimare Jr, who is known for Francis Ford Coppola side projects, lensed the movie.  Jonny Greenwood who worked on Blood and We Need to Talk About Kevin did the score.  Recent Academy Award winner (for The Artist) Mark Bridges has done the costumes for every Anderson feature.  Incidentally, he also worked on production design for Magnolia.  Production Designer David Crank has worked as Art Director on Blood, as well as some Terrence Malick films and the upcoming Lincoln).  Production Designer Jack Fisk, nominated for Blood, has an even longer history with Malick.  Set Decorator Amy Wells worked on A Single Man.  Old Anderson friends Daniel Lupi and JoAnne Sellar produced, as well as Megan Ellison and Ted Schipper, who have all kinds of interesting projects lined up like Lawless, Killing Them Softy, Zero Dark Thirty, and The Grandmasters.

The Master also stars Laura Dern, who, if she plays a cult leader, I imagine will be a helluva performance.  Additionally, the film will be one of Darren Le Gallo's two 2012 films with his longtime companion, Amy Adams.  There's a teaser trailer you can watch over at Deadline.

[Pictures via At The Movies, Gordon and the Whale, People]

Also on the Radar:

Anna Karenina     Argo     Beasts of the Southern Wild     The Bourne Legacy     The Dark Knight Rises     Dark Shadows     Django Unchained     Gangster Squad     Great Expectations     The Great Gatsby     The Hobbit     Hope Springs     The Hunger Games     Hyde Park on the Hudson     Killing Them Softly     Lawless     Lincoln     Lola Versus     Lovelace     Low Life     Magic Mike     The Master     Les Misérables     Life of Pi     Moonrise Kingdom     The Paperboy     People Like Us     Prometheus     To Rome with Love     Ruby Sparks     Savages     Seeking a Friend for the End of the World     The Silver Linings Playbook     Smashed     The Surrogate     Trouble with the Curve     Won't Back Down 


The Avengers     The Amazing Spider-Man     Men in Black III