HBO is examining the Church of Scientology in a new documentary based on Lawrence Wright's book "Going Clear," and has had to hire a bunch of lawyers – "probably 160" – just to get the bombshell of a show off the ground.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Alex Gibney is wrapping up the film with a release date sometime in 2015. The documentary will look at the church and its established ties in Hollywood.
Sheila Nevins, HBO Documentary Films president, told THR that she hopes the documentary will be finished in time to enter it into January's Sundance Film Festival. She added, though, the lawyers will have their say first.
"We have probably 160 lawyers [looking at the film]," said Nevins.
"Going Clear," has already generated a substantial amount of controversy for the church.
USA Today reported that Wright's book grew from his 2011 profile of Paul Haggis in New Yorker magazine. In the profile, the Pulitzer Prizing-winning writer looked at why the filmmaking heavyweight left the church in 2009 and his criticism of its teachings and behavior toward members.
"The one thing 'clear' about Lawrence Wright's book is that he continues to carry water for a handful of angry, bitter individuals led by a pathological liar still consumed with vengeance a decade after being removed for malfeasance," wrote church spokeswoman Karin Pouw in 2013 after THR printed an excerpt from the book.
"Mr. Wright produced a work of fiction that does little more than regurgitate six decades of false, bizarre tabloid allegations about the religion's Founder, its leadership and its prominent members," Pouw said.
In Wright's
New Yorker article, Haggis said he first became involved with Scientology because he "identify with the underdog."
"I have a perverse pride in being a member of a group that people shun," Haggis told Wright, saying at the time he believed that the church stood up for the marginalized and the oppressed.
"Here I was in this very structured organization, but I always thought of myself as a freethinker and an iconoclast," Haggis told Wright.
Related Stories: