Is Jeremy Renner going to be in Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master"

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The Playlist have some gossip and it is clearly rumours The Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner has been rumoured to get a part in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Scientology movie The Master. No he’s not going to be that villian from Doctor Who but a rumour started in the blogs comments section when they reviewed a script for a unamed scientology  project from the There Will Be Blood director.

The project was given the working title name of The Master  and one of the scripts characters was a semi-alcoholic misguided 20 something man called Freddy whom the blog suggested possibly could be played by Paul Dano. The character in return gets mentored by The Master according to Variety will be played by none other than Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Just like any rumour or misread suggestion things get out of hand and many of the blogs readers believe The Playlist had  inside knowledge to the movie.

In there comments section for this particular post an Anon said “when was Paul Dano confirmed to be in this??” which is followed up by another Anon post, “I don’t think he was/is. Everything I’ve heard is that an offer is out to Jeremy Renner.” New York Times did report that  Jeremy Renner had 5 meetings with Anderson about a ‘secret’  movie project and then this looked like the unamed scientology projet, before you know it websites Movieline & Cinematical joined in on the rumour fun with there sources pointing to The Playlist comments section!!!

Like any rumour or scoop it could end up nothing but at times you do get that feeling maybe this could have some truth to it. Though you may love him to get it, the character Freddy is in his twenties but Renner is a man soon to touch 40 years old. The reason I decide to post this was simply down to one of my female friends who drools at Jeremy Renner when on screen or print came to me yesterday asking if I knew anything about that ‘religious’ movie Jeremy is going to do and I asked her where did she see that, she told me it was from a  link on my blog (I have the Playlist on my blogroll).

With the script still in its early stages there is a chance for Paul Thomas Anderson to make some changes to let the 39 year old actor play the role of Freddy, but if he wants to keep with the origin of the story I doubt he’ll change it to accomodate an older actor. If Phillip Seymour Hoffman is to play the actual master role it would make sense for Freddy to be an younger man who has lost direction as it would make the  manipulation more realistic as Hoffman himself is only a few years old than Renner. But could Renner be into play the actual Master role? I agree with The Playlist highly unlikely as Hoffman can get away with playing a older person and the master’s character does have children in their 20’s and thirties, for Renner to ply the role the children would have to be no older than late teens.

All I say is never say never as Renner could still play in this movie but he’s also in line for possibly playing in Peter Berg’s Battleships movie and if he’s going to be in that, he wont be in the Master as both movies are aimed at summer shooting. File this one under R for Rumour with a 50/50 possiblity of happening.