At last night’s Ides of March party Phillip Seymour Hoffman — a.k.a. “Philly” — insisted that Paul Thomas Anderson‘s The Master, which he just finished filming, is “not a Scientology film.” But I’ve read an early draft and it seems to be about a Scientology-like cult, i said to him. And I’ve read about the parallels. “I don’t know what you’ve heard and what script you’ve read,” Hoffman replied. “Trust me, it’s not about Scientology.”

Maybe not specifically or literally, but there are just too many proofs and indications that The Master (or whatever it’s eventually going to be called) is at least about a cult with a charismatic L. Ron Hubbard-type leader that could be seen as a metaphor for Scientology. At least that. Read this February 2010 Playlist analysis and tell me it’s not that. And that Hoffman’s denial isn’t perhaps a little too definitive.