​This HBO Documentary About Scientology Will Be Bonkers

A documentary about Scientology is coming to HBO in 2015, and it has the potential to make a lot of people mad while entertaining us all in the process.

Oscar winner Alex Gibney directed the film, which The Hollywood Reporter says “tackles the Church of Scientology and its Tinseltown tentacles.” Ha. Since the Church is notoriously secretive about its inner workings and members, HBO expects heavy criticism.

To cover their asses, the network has hired “probably 160 lawyers” to check the film for potential legal issues, according to HBO executive Sheila Nevins.

Time reports:

…the documentary is based on investigative reporter Lawrence Wright’s book, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief. Going Clear grew out of a 2011 New Yorker profile of Paul Haggis, who left the Church.

That’s the same book that Wall Street Journal referred to as a “feat of reporting.”

A lot of celebrities practice Scientology, but Tom Cruise and Laura Prepon are among Hollywood’s most well known, with Cruise of course being the face of it. During his divorce, there were court documents citing that Katie Holmes wanted to “protect Suri from Scientology.” I also remember reading this Vanity Fair article about his curated relationships.

There was this weird case involving the Scientology leader’s missing wife. There’s also Will Smith. Grantland did an interesting podcast that addresses how Scientology, among other things, might play into Willow and Jaden Smith’s atypical world views.

So: lots of material. The documentary is likely to reveal a bunch of unwanted secrets and create a shitshow and it’s gonna all be fascinating.

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