Entertainment Tonight ET Online ETOnline.com

A new clip from director Paul Thomas Anderson's highly anticipated The Master has been released, this time cracking open the Pandora's Box of Philip Seymour Hoffman's character.

Video: Joaquin Phoenix in 'The Master'

Set in the '50s, Hoffman plays a charismatic intellectual known as "The Master" who launches his own religion, a character reportedly based on L. Ron Hubbard and his controversial Scientology.

"I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher," says Hoffman in the clip. "But, above all, I am a man. Hopelessly inquisitive man, just like you."

Video: Tom Cruise Clears Up Scientology Rumors

Joaquin Phoenix plays a World War II vet and drifter who becomes Hoffman's "inspiration" and right-hand man. Amy Adams, Laura Dern, Jesse Plemons and David Warshovsky also star in the film, scheduled for an October release.