No ‘Tree of Life’ for Christmas
We’ve been following release date roulette with Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life for some time now, but today Anne Thompson reports that the film starring Sean Penn and Brad Pitt won’t be ready for a 2009 release. Bob Berney, the head of Apparition which is releasing the film says he hasn’t seen it and he doesn’t know when it will come out.
It’s not a big shocker really. Malick isn’t a deadline guy and if the film comes out in 2010, it’ll still be his fastest turnaround since he followed up 1973′s Badlands with Days of Heaven in 1978. 20 years passed before The Thin Red Line was released and another 7 years for The New World. By that measure, 5 years between The New World and Tree of Life is lightning quick.
Filed under: Release Dates
Tags: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Terrence Malick, Tree of Life
Damn.
A show of hands, on who is surprised by this. Anybody?
Not me.
For all my cynicism and sarcasm on a day-to-day basis, I was trying to remain hopeful for an extra special Christmas but yeah…not surprised.
“Malick has taken 30 years to make the movie, so he’s not in any rush… He’s been fussing in the editing room for more than a year.”
Malick is editing out Brad Pitt, like he did to Adrien Brody in The Thin Red Line. Adding more shots of leaves and branches and stuff.
I just can’t believe it.
Damn, there went my straight face.
Let him tinker and finese if it means another masterpiece. My blu ray copy of The New World arrived along with those of Fargo and Being There. I’ve only had a chance to watch the first 15 minutes or so of The New World to check out the quality – which is excellent. But I was struck by the similiarities with the beginning of The Thin Red Line. Both present beatific scenes of “naturals” swimming in water, both initially contrast such scenes with those showing ships in nearby waters carrying encroachers who are no longer capable of co-existing in less intrusive/destructive ways with the environment. Both show these encroachers moving through lush grassy fields encountering the exotic “naturals” who seem surprisingly accepting of or indifferent to their arrival.
I wholly agree with both your sentiment, Sartre, (“Let him tinker and finesse if it means another masterpiece”) and your wonderfully astute comparative analysis of The New World and The Thin Red Line. It struck me most forcefully during my second viewing of The New World. The proto-Heidegger perspective married to Malick’s continuation of the theme between “encroacher” and “indigenous,” perhaps… Much of it can be reduced to Gary Busey’s statement in the 1998 film–”Our little brown brothers,” but there is so much more to uncover.
I was struck by the same thing Sartre. It actually got me to rethink Thin Red Line altogether.
I’ve said it before, but The New World for me was one of the great, transcendent moving-going experiences I’ve ever had. I still prefer the original version I saw to any other, but they’re all major works of art.
What’s interesting is how poorly received the film was by critics who should’ve been championing it.