We have a couple of quick casting stories to report this morning.  First up, The Film Stage confirms that Madisen Beaty has joined Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled religious drama.  Her role is unknown but it’s possible she’s playing the daughter to charismatic religious leader Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his wife (Amy Adams).  This weekend we reported that Rami Malek (who gave an electric performance in The Pacific) had been cast as the daughter’s husband.  The cast also includes Joaquin Phoenix as Dodd’s right-hand man, Laura Dern, Lena Endre, Jesse Plemons, and David Warshofsky.  The plot was once based on L. Ron Hubbard and the founding of Scientology, but that may have been scaled back to tell the story a man who witnesses the horrors of World War II and is spurred to create his own religion.

Hit the jump for casting news on the drama Wartime Wanderers.

After looking rather dead last September, Paul Thomas Anderson’s untitled religious drama was resurrected this past February when producer Megan Ellison (True Grit) and her Annapurna Productions came on board to finance the picture.  Deadline now reports that Joaquin Phoenix has been confirmed play Freddie Sutton, an alcoholic drifter who becomes right-hand man to Lancaster Dodd, a charismatic intellectual known as The Master (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who’s been attached to the film from the beginning). Earlier drafts of the story were overtly based on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, but that has reportedly changed.   According to Deadline, “[Anderson] has greatly overhauled the script and now, Hoffman stars 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.”

Deadline is also reporting that Anderson is now considering actresses Madisen Beaty (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) Amy Adams, Lena Endre (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), and Laura Dern for roles in the film.  Hit the jump for more details on this exciting production.