Director Paul Haggis to Release his Inside Scientology Story this Summer

As you know there's a lot of controversy and scandal surrounding the Church of Scientology. Regardless of what your feelings are about Scientology, it's a fascinating religion that people are interested in learning more about, but not in the way the church would want. It's safe to say that most people are drawn to looking into the negative, utterly strange, and scary aspects of Scientology.

Not too long ago it was announced that Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood) was going to make a film with Jeremy Renner and Philip Seymour Hoffman, based around the religion called The Master. The film has been delayed though, and there's no word on when or if it will resume production. 

Now director Paul Haggis (Crash) is ready to release his Scientology story in the form of a book, and it looks like it will be ready to go this summer. I'm sure it will bring a hell of a lot of heat from the Church of Scientology on him. Haggis was a member of the Church of Scientology for 35 years before publicly defecting in 2009, "after he became convinced that leader David Miscavige is a violent nut." Yep, this isn't going to be a fluff piece. This book is definitely going to hurt the church, and there's not much they can do about because it comes from one of it's former top members. This guy knew a great deal about this Church.

Haggis has never really talked about his experiences as a Scientologist, apparently he's been saving his thoughts for an upcoming collaboration with Lawrence Wright for an article in The New Yorker whichwill give the detailed inside story of the Church. This article ended up spawning a book called The Heretic of Hollywood: Paul Haggis vs.The Church of Scientology, which explores the history of Scientology “through Haggis’s eyes” and it will include “the appeal of Scientology, especially to talented and ambitious members of the entertainment industry.” 

The artice that the book is based on has yet to be released, and the book does not have a publisher at this time. But they are hoping to get it released in June of 2011. The following is the description of the book:

The Academy Award winning writer and director, Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Crash), spent three decades in the Church of Scientology. Haggis was one of the church’s Hollywood trophies, along with Tom Cruise and John Travolta, whose paths cross with Haggis’s. His resignation from the church in August of 2009 was a crushing disappointment to the organization. This is the first time Haggis has spoken about his experience.

The roots of Scientology are explored in this book, particularly the life of its eccentric founder, L. Ron Hubbard, whose flashes of brilliance and insanity are woven into the fabric of this elaborate belief system. Through Haggis’s eyes, we discover the appeal of Scientology, especially to talented and ambitious members of the entertainment industry. Haggis conducted a personal investigation of the church, in which he was told about the wanton physical abuse on the part of its current leader, David Miscavige, of senior members of the organization. He was told that young volunteers in the Scientology clergy, called the Sea Org, are subjected to conditions approaching slavery or imprisonment, and that many female members have been forced to have abortions.

The most profound reckoning to date with this powerful and secretive organization, The Heretic of Hollywood is also a moving human story of the lure of extreme faith and the price of leaving it.

The article on Gawker also reminds us that the Church famously drove an author to suicide when she was set to release her own scathing look at the Church. Makes me wonder... what is the real reason that Paul Thomas Anderson's Scientology movie has been delayed? Here's a pervious quote from Jeremy Renner about the movie being delayed,

I was really bummed about that…It really kind of stalled because when we were rehearsing — Phil, Paul and myself — we kept coming up against a wall that we couldn’t overcome. Or at least Paul couldn’t overcome.

Was Scientology that wall? I'm just sayin'.