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Rich Kids
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Screams of a Winter's Night
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Simon
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God's Angry Man
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Fast-Walking
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When the Wind Blows
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Housekeeping
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The Glass Menagerie
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Patty Hearst
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Drowning by Numbers
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Haunted Summer
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The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
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1990's
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City of Hope
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The Baby of Macon
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Dadetown
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SubUrbia
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Upcoming

January 8

Bitch Slap

Waiting for Armageddon

Wonderful World

Youth in Revolt

January 15

January 22

Drool

Extraordinary Measures

The Girl on the Train

Pitt, Penn, Dinosaurs

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"We're just starting work on a project for Terrence Malick, animating dinosaurs, the film is The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. It'll be showing in IMAX -- so the dinosaurs will actually be life size -- and the shots of the creatures will be long and lingering." -- from an Empire magazine interview with VFX artist Mike Fink that some sources claim to have read but which can't be located by the mag's search engine.

Some 18 years ago I over-wrote a very long piece about Malick, a where-is-he? thing called Malick Aforethought. It later ran in truncated form in Los Angeles magazine in '95 or thereabouts. I don't have a copy of either version, but I remember researching and describing an ambitious film that Malick wanted to film in the wake of the 1978 release of Days of Heaven, called Q. (A title later appropriated by Larry Cohen when he made Q, The Winged Serpent .)

And I remember a passage about a dinosaur sleeping and dreaming in a sea of magma -- I remember that much. The story spanned millenia. We all know there's a 20th Century portion in which Pitt (I think) plays Penn's dad in flashbacks. I realize this all sounds a little vague.

No Ambiguity<< previous | next >>Malick, Olstein & Me

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 1, 2009 at 4:42 PM

comment #1

MilkMan says ...

There are dinosaurs in the new Malick? I'm at a loss. I had no idea. WTF is this movie about?

Posted by MilkMan at March 1, 2009 4:55 PM

comment #2

Jeffrey Wells says ...

A father, a son and....dinosaurs!

Posted by Jeffrey Wells at March 1, 2009 4:57 PM

comment #3

NDH says ...

Malick + visual effects = 2015 release date

Posted by NDH at March 1, 2009 5:01 PM

comment #4

corey3rd says ...

Malick + Dinosaurs + Brad Pitt = Land of the Lost 2!!!

Posted by corey3rd at March 1, 2009 5:05 PM

comment #5

BurmaShave says ...

I actually do remember reading a long time ago about how this was supposed to cover all of time or something. Maybe now people will shut the fuck up about this being like THE FOUNTAIN.

Posted by BurmaShave at March 1, 2009 5:12 PM

comment #6

ZayTonday says ...

Is it being shot on IMAX film though? If not it's just a blown-up 35mm print with the same aspect ratio.

Posted by ZayTonday at March 1, 2009 5:12 PM

comment #7

AndrewOwens says ...

It's only in the dead tree edition as far as I can tell, (with Christian Bale on the cover), on page 31, in an article about digital actors, the bar being raised by Benjamin Button, etc.

Actually the thing in the movie I most want to see is Jessica Chastain - who's up there with Christina Hendricks in the adorable redhead department.

Posted by AndrewOwens at March 1, 2009 5:13 PM

comment #8

quelle says ...

The extensive macro timeline natural history segment, which the Empire article addresses, is supposedly to be cross-cut with the drama revolving around the 1950's Smithville-based family, confirming vaguely Mr Pitt's statement to Charlie Rose in late December 2007: "It's about time, existence, and our place in that little timeline." The article makes way for believing the entire film will be shown in IMAX, though other sources has stated only the portion on the evolution of the univers/life on Earth(i.e.: the natural history segment) will play in IMAX theaters, running roughly 45 min.

Posted by quelle at March 1, 2009 5:34 PM

comment #9

JT says ...

Hendricks is a goddess. She is SOOOOOOOOOOO sexy on screen and in person. God, I saw her at dinner one time last year and was erect the whole evening. Forgive the imagery but that's the cleanest way to put it.

Posted by JT at March 1, 2009 5:35 PM

comment #10

btwnproductions says ...

Sounds a bit like Thornton Wilder's THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH.

Posted by btwnproductions at March 1, 2009 5:44 PM

comment #11

TheJeff says ...

Supposedly, Tree of Life is the project (once called "Q") that Malick first started work on 30 years ago -- the one that frustrated him so much that he left filmmaking. A 1995 article from Los Angeles magazine discussed the topic.

In the summer of 1978, Malick had begun work on Q--easily his most ambitious project. The original concept was a multicharacter drama set in the Middle East during World War I, with a prologue set in prehistoric times. But after dispatching an assistant for 10 weeks to scout locations, Malick chucked the Middle East section. By the end of the year, the prehistoric prologue had become the whole script.

Imagine this surrealistic reptilian world," says Richard Taylor, a special-effects consultant Malick hired. "There is this creature, a Minotaur, sleeping in the water, and he dreams about the evolution of the universe, seeing the earth change from a sea of magma to the earliest vegetation, to the dinosaurs, and then to man. It would be this metaphorical story that moves you through time."

Malick covered a lot of ground and spent a bundle of money preparing to film Q. By midsummer 1979, Paramount had become very frustrated trying to reconcile the mounting bills with the director's ever-evolving concept.

"It got to the point that whatever people wanted, he wouldn't give it to them," Taylor remembers. "Because he was expected to make a movie, he'd say, 'I don't want to.' One day he went to France, and that was it." What was thought to be a brief vacation turned into a permanent one. Says Witliff: "I think the more applause he got, the more frightened he got."

Much of Malick's life since has been spent avoiding that fright. He lives now with his second wife (a former Parisian guidance counselor whom he married in 1988 and her daughter. He writes and travels, spending half his time in Paris and the other half at his apartment in Austin, with stopovers in Oklahoma to visit his brother and father. Or he pops up on either coast. In the last few years, Malick was said to be in New York working as an adviser on an experimental film; visiting Sam Shepard (the farmer in Days of Heaven) in Virginia armed with a 250-page version of Q that Shepard thought "absolutely brilliant but virtually unfilmable," according to mutual friend, writer-director Chris Cleveland; and attending a Pasadena Playhouse production, where screenwriter Tom Rickman asked him what he'd been doing lately. "Nothing" was the reply.

Posted by TheJeff at March 1, 2009 5:58 PM

comment #12

Ethan says ...

I don't want to be a downer here but there's NO way that this will play in IMAX. I'm pretty sure most IMAX theaters will be showing some CGI-Dreamworks movie instead.

Posted by Ethan at March 1, 2009 6:10 PM

comment #13

BurmaShave says ...

Oh shit this is Q?!!!! YEs ! Oh baby. Forgive my enthusiasm.

Posted by BurmaShave at March 1, 2009 6:13 PM

comment #14

actionman says ...

excuse me while I go change my pants

Posted by actionman at March 1, 2009 6:15 PM

comment #15

televisiontears says ...

For me, this is by far the most intriguing project (maybe) being released this year. There's always been a hint of existential angst in Malick's work, so in one way this makes sense. But that doesn't mean the wtf's are unfounded. I'm hoping it's his 2001 in the best possible way.

Burma, I know The Fountain is widely and deeply despised, but that comparison is not a deal-breaker for me. That film is like an intense ninety minute conversation with a close friend with whom you've been to hell and back. Truly transcendent, but not for everyone. Not by a long shot.

Posted by televisiontears at March 1, 2009 6:21 PM

comment #16

actionman says ...

the fountain is a masterwork

Posted by actionman at March 1, 2009 6:27 PM

comment #17

DavidF says ...

I thought The Fountain was a noble failure.

Then again I was gonna do some Thin Red Line bashing, asking if the dinos are part of the movie or merely thrashing around in the background while a voice over, in the voice of one character but bearing no relation to the character as depicted, rambles on about the nature of extinction and mortality.

This does sound interesting if nothing else.

I'm also wondering if the FX-realted Richard Taylor quoted above is the same guy who runs WETA now...? How many of them can there be?

Posted by DavidF at March 1, 2009 7:22 PM

comment #18

erniesouchak says ...

The DP is the great Chivo Lubezki, and I've read they shot some 65mm as well as 35mm.

Posted by erniesouchak at March 1, 2009 8:05 PM

comment #19

K. Bowen says ...

So it is Q. I had read that rumor but was skeptical.

The Fountain is a fascinating semi-failure, IMO.

Posted by K. Bowen at March 1, 2009 8:13 PM

comment #20

Nate West says ...

It makes sense since the "Tree of Life" is, at root, an evolutionary tree. Should play well in the South.

Posted by Nate West at March 1, 2009 8:17 PM

comment #21

BurmaShave says ...

To clarify, I think THE FOUNTAIN is a near-masterpiece and I really loved it. I just thought the comparison was completely misguided. They both have trees? And now we don't even know that.

Posted by BurmaShave at March 1, 2009 8:32 PM

comment #22

Chase Kahn says ...

'The Fountain' was unfairly crucified. I lost a lot of respect for Richard Roeper (not that it was unwavering to begin with) when I saw him review the film on At the Movies -- "I think the tree is supposed to be his wife" -- Wow! Gold star for Mr. Roeper!

Posted by Chase Kahn at March 1, 2009 8:47 PM

comment #23

Jeremy Smith says ...

Pretty sure the Richard Taylor they're talking about is this guy (who worked on TRON and LIFEFORCE):

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0853053/

Posted by Jeremy Smith at March 1, 2009 9:01 PM

comment #24

i.villafuerte says ...

everytime The Fountain is mentioned a little piece of me dies because I haven't been able to forget what the original incarnation of that film was supposed to be and now that Brad Pitt is starring in a metaphysical film entitled Tree of Life....well that's just rubbing salt on the wound.

Posted by i.villafuerte at March 1, 2009 9:43 PM

comment #25

JosephB says ...

Late last year (I think around late November) my mother sent along a small newspaper article about a movie being filmed in our hometown (Waco, Texas where my family still lives and I don't). She knows very little about filmmakers and such, and I was astounded to see it was Malick and Brad Pitt filming The Tree Of Life. Malick spent a large part of his childhood growing up in Waco, so it was pretty cool to see him return for a couple weeks. Where the dinosaurs fit in, I have no idea.... but it's still pretty amazing. I love the guy.

Posted by JosephB at March 1, 2009 10:30 PM

comment #26

dinovelvet says ...

So let me get this straight. Malick, dinosaurs, IMAX. Not three words I ever expected to see together, quite frankly. It all sounds like a huge folly really. It could easily be the most "WTF?" film of all time. I can picture families turning up to see this on the basis that it has dinosaurs and is playing on IMAX. Won't they be surprised!

Posted by dinovelvet at March 2, 2009 3:28 AM

comment #27

Jeffrey Wells says ...

Jeffrey Wells to TheJeff: That 1995 Los Angeles magazine you've excerpted above, called "Waiting for Godot," was and is substantively my original Malick article, Malick Aforethought, in a spruced-up, cut-down form. [Here's the link: http://www.eskimo.com/~toates/malick/art5.html.]

I worked for Los Angeles in '95 and, I think, into '96, under Andy Olstein. Andy felt, as did many others, that my original Malick piece was a little too turgid and term-papery. (He was right.) So he enlivened it by pruning it down by half and inserting a narration penned by Andy's Joe Gillis persona (Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard creation reborn as Andy's hard-boiled alter ego, sipping mai tai's at the Formosa Cafe). I think I was given a "researched by" or "reporting by" credit at the very end of the piece. I needed the money and the work so I accepted the diminished status.

During the preparation of this piece I had managed, incidentally, the almost unheard-of feast of getting Malick to come to the phone. (He was staying at Mike Medavoy's, and I had just rung Mike's house one afternoon, hoping I might get lucky.) Our conversation barely happened because of Malick's historic aversion to sharing with journalists (then, before, now, forever), but I taped and transcribed what we said to each other. Olstein, committed to the Gillis authorship and keeping me out of the picture except as an assistant/researcher, used the transcript, of course, but as a conversation between Malick and Joe Gillis(!) And so people naturally presumed it hadn't happened and was made up. Brilliant, Andy! My eternal thanks.

http://www.eskimo.com/~toates/malick/art5.html

Posted by Jeffrey Wells at March 2, 2009 5:38 AM

comment #28

BurmaShave says ...

Wow. What a fuck-over. So to be clear, you have stolen a girl from Ray Winstone, met Michelle Pfeiffer, and interviewed Terrence Malick. Damn. I look forward to your book.

Posted by BurmaShave at March 2, 2009 6:06 AM

comment #29

actionman says ...

HOLY SHIT.

Per AICN:

Visual f/x legend Douglas Trumbull is working on THE TREE OF LIFE.

In what capacity? Is he assisting Mike Fink on the dinosaur footage? I don't know just yet. But he has been seen knocking around Austin with Malick's crew, and I can confirm that he has been shooting footage of some sort fairly recently. Personally, I hope he's involved with the NASA-shot sequences that will allegedly be included in the IMAX movie.

And when I say "IMAX movie", I mean a whole second movie. That's right, we'll be getting two new Malick movies in the next year or so: the first is THE TREE OF LIFE (which one source tells me is "massive"); the other will be an "IMAX-only" feature depicting the birth and death of the universe. It's important to note that these films are not narratively connected; to the best of my knowledge, they're thematically complementary pieces. Hopefully, I'll be able to elaborate on this by the end of the week (though I'd kinda like to stay a little vague on the details if only to preserve the air of mystery that's surrounding this production).

But Douglas Trumbull, the visual f/x pioneer who collaborated with Stanley Kubrick on 2001 and Steven Spielberg on CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, will be receiving his first feature credit since Ridley Scott's BLADE RUNNER. On a Terrence Malick film. It don't get any cooler than that.

Posted by actionman at March 2, 2009 7:18 PM

comment #30

free games says ...

Malick + Dinosaurs + Brad Pitt = Land of the Lost 3!!!

Posted by free games at October 26, 2009 10:37 AM

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