March 17, 2010

Could Jeremy Renner be joining PTA's religion film with PSH?

Well, that's the rumblings found here in Deadline:

After the disappointing box office returns on Paul Greengrass’s thoughtful but vastly expensive action polemic Green Zone, what’s gonna happen with a new Paul Thomas Anderson drama that won’t get made by Universal because of its $35 million budget? I’m hearing talks are serious for Bill Pohlad’s River Road to fully finance a film that will star Philip Seymour Hoffman as a charismatic intellectual who in the 1950s becomes the leader of a start-up religion that takes off like wildfire. The Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner is circling the role of a young drifter who becomes his right hand man but begins to question his mentor and the whole belief thing. The presence of Oscar winner Hoffman and Oscar nominee Renner gives PTA another Oscar-bait movie, and a topical one, as the storyline questions long established religions as well as comparative upstarts like Scientology and Mormonism. But the $35 million price tag was blasphemy to some indie distributors who considered the package.

I’m also hearing that PTA’s longtime agent and former Paramount honcho John Lesher is likely to join as producer alongside Anderson’s longtime collaborator, Jo Anne Sellar. River Road seems a strong fit, given Pohlad's affection for auteur fare. He made possible the Terrence Malick-directed The Tree of Life with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, as well as the Warner Bros castoff Fair Game, the Doug Liman-directed drama about outed CIA op Valerie Plame which stars Penn and Noami Watts. Pohlad is principal investor and partner with Bob Berney in the distribution shingle Apparition. It's unclear if Berney will get the PTA film, though it seems right in the distributor's wheelhouse. Apparition next distributes The Runaways for Pohlad.

-From what I've heard about the script, it'd be a great casting choice...thoughts?

12 comments:

  1. I'd love to see this casting come through...

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  2. Yes. Yes. Yes. I want to see this movie now.

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  3. I definitely think that Renner, while in my opinion nothing spectacular in "The Hurt Locker" (Anthony Mackie gave a better performance, in my opinion), could definitely rise to his full potential with this film.

    I'm very excited about any PTA film, and am extremely glad that he's finally marching forward and actually making a film to follow up "There Will Be Blood".

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  4. Joey, what have you heard about the script, exactly?

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  5. I was a big fan of Renner in The Hurt Locker, but I know what you mean.

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  6. I read a script review a month or two back, nothing inside or anything, just from perusing the web.

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  7. Anderson could be doing a film about paint drying for all I'd care. I would still see it opening day.

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  8. Joey, I dont see the point in comparing the green zone with "The Master" (probable title)... TGZ was a USD 100millons agains USD 35MM of "The Master" and the subject is totally diferent... I think we´re kinda stuffed of war films... unless critics and specialist get some exploring film as we saw the a new minimalist film "the hurt lokcer", wich even winning the oscar it will never be a blockbuster or a high gross film never... the subject is jadded period.
    and as I read, Universal is waiting the script that is writing PTA to decide to go or not for the film...
    (sorry in advance for my spelling mistakes)

    my respects

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  9. Well, I didn't make the comparison, Mike Fleming of Deadline did, so take it up with him, since I agree with you there.

    There is a first draft of the script floating around, and here's one of the script reviews of it (don't read if you want to remain in the dark about the film): http://forizzer69.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/script-review-untitled-by-p-t-anderson/

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  10. Thanks, will consider your advice!
    If this goes forward, has all the earmarks that will be released the end of December!

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  11. That's the strategy that was used for There Will Be Blood, so I wouldn't doubt it...

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