Oscar Tipped ‘The Master’ Causes A Scientology Stir

Following a hugely successful reception at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, The Master is causing controversy in Scientology circles, reports The Guardian; the British paper that gave the film five stars.

Scientologists are now said to be stepping up their campaign to undermine the film, causing Oscar winning producer Harvey Weinstein to up his security levels. Whilst the film’s director, Paul Thomas Anderson, has admitted the main character, Lancaster Dodd, brought to life by Philip Seymour Hoffman, is loosely based on the father of Scientology, he explains that the film is about much more than just that: "This is a character that I created based on L Ron Hubbard, there's a lot of similarities to the early days of Dianetics … I don't know a hell of a lot about Scientology today but I know about the beginnings of that movement and it inspired me to use it as a backdrop for these characters. I can't be any more unambiguous than that. I think we were just trying to tell a love story between these two guys. We had a lot of scenes that weren't about that and we took them out."

The Master - so wonderfully received by critics so far - is mooted by many to be a shoe-in at The Oscars come January, but for those who like to dabble on a wager; some betting emporiums are offering odds as high as 6/1 (at the time of writing) for P.T Anderson’s hotly anticipated film to win Best Picture.