The next documentary to premiere on HBO has its sights set on the controversial Church of Scientology and its Hollywood memebers that have adopted the religion based on the beliefs of a science fiction writer.
Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney is finishing up the film called "Going Clear," based on Lawrence Wright's 2013 book "Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood & the Prison of Belief," according to The Hollywood Reporter. HBO commissioned the film two years ago, before Wright even published the book that stemmed from a New Yorker profile with the filmmaker and ex-Scientologist Paul Haggis.
The documentary will expose new information about Scientology and its famous members such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise. If completed on time, the film will be submitted to the Sundance Film Festival in January.
HBO expects legal backlash from the religious organization and has almost 160 lawyers analyzing the film to avoid any complications, HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins told The Hollywood Reporter. The Church frequently takes legal action when its feels Scientology or the beliefs of Scientology are being attacked.
Protesters from the Church picketed HBO headquarters in New York City after the premiere of the 1998 documentary "Dead Blue: Surviving Depression" because they claim the program presented "antidepressant drugs in a positive light," according to The Hollywood Reporter. Scientologists don't believe in the practice of psychiatry.
"I didn't see what [antidepressants] had to do with Scientology until I worked on that film, until I saw these people outside the building," Nevins said in an interview. "I though they must be a union protest. But it was our film they were protesting. They're so anti-psychiatry, anti-medicine and anti-Freud. It was really quite interesting."
"Going Clear" will most likely premiere next year on HBO.
