By There was a bit of wonder surrounding the Director of Photography job on Paul Thomas Anderson’s next flick. After serving as cinematographer on every one of the director’s films from Hard Eight through to There Will Be Blood, Robert Elswit is unable to join The Master, which began shooting last Friday due to his work on both Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and The Bourne Legacy.
That lauded position has gone to Mihai Malaimare Jr., the DP for Francis Ford Coppola’s most recent work. His resume almost exclusively includes Coppola’s Youth Without Youth, Tetro, and Twixt Now and Sunrise. The first two were released very quietly despite the once-dynamic director coming out of a decade long retirement, but Twixt might make more of a splash with Elle Fanning in the roster and some talk of 3D.
The Master, on the other hand, will definitely put eyes on Malaimare’s work. Perhaps the most controversial movie of 2012, The film is said to be a dramatized expose’ on Scientology, chronicling the life of an L. Ron Hubbard type who creates a belief system. The project has been caught in developmental hell for some time now, alongside frequent rumors of pressure being put to allies of PTA who didn’t want to cross the Scientology power system. It’s finally moving forward in stealth, with its producer claiming it isn’t even about Scientology, and operating under the codename Untitled Western and later, WWII Drama before reverting back to The Master.
Call it what you will, people have read the script and one thing is certain: the character of Frank T.J. Mackey will not be returning for Magnolia 2.
[via ThePlaylist]