After five long years of waiting, another Paul Thomas Anderson feature is finally arriving in theaters and we’ve got official confirmation of its release date. It was rumored earlier this month, but now Box Office Mojo has reported a October 12th, 2012 release date for one of our most highly-anticipated films of the yearThe Master, the period drama starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams.

Starting out limited, the film will go against Ruben Fleischer‘s Gangster Squad and the Kevin James comedy Here Comes the Boom. This could possibly mean a fall festival bow like Venice or TIFF, but I could easily see The Weinstein Company just riding off cinephiles’ anticipation and going to straight the theaters.

Philip Seymour Hoffman leads as a man “who returns after witnessing the horrors of WWII and tries to rediscover who he is in post-war America. He creates a belief system, something that catches on with other lost souls.” Loosely based on L. Ron Hubbard, the creator of Scientology, Joaquin Phoenix plays Freddie, “a young drifter who is swept up in the movement and becomes Hoffman’s character’s lieutenant. As everything builds, however, Freddie begins to question the system he’s helped to create.” The supporting cast includes Laura Dern, David Warshofsky, Rami Malek, Jesse Plemons, Madisen BeatyJoshua Close and Fiona Dourif.

What are you doing to count down the 198 remaining days?

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