"My Scientology Movie" debuts at Tribeca Film Festival

First US screening on it was Sunday. Quite different from Going Clear, and if anything seems it might be more entertaining.

The film follows Louis Theroux — a guerilla-style BBC journalist who has been dubbed Britain’s Michael Moore for taking viewers inside bizarre American subcultures like militias and the porn industry — in his quest to understand the psyche behind the average Church of Scientology member.

Theroux enlisted ex-members such as former top-ranking Scientology exec Marty Rathbun to tell their stories. But he and Dower also needed people to stand in for leader David Miscavige and acolyte Tom Cruise, so actors were hired to portray them.

"This is probably the only film I’ve done at this level of litigiousness," said director John.Dower. Scientology seems to threaten a lot, and then nothing ever really happens. You get these long, detailed letters in which they object to what you’re doing, and they’re very threatening, but then nothing." He laughs, "I could regret saying that, I guess."