Vanquish those 2010 Oscar hopes right now. In a press release distributed this a.m., Fox Searchlight announced today that they acquired rights for Terrence Malick’s long-anticipated drama, “The Tree Of Life,” starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain.
But, collective guesses that the film would arrive within this calendar year are off. The film will be pegged for a release sometime in 2011 and if we were betting people that means Fall 2011, which means most of you won’t be seeing it for almost another year.
If we’re lucky we’ll see the picture at Cannes 2011. Surely the picture will be ready at that juncture, but will Searchlight and Malick want to blow their wad that early? It’s completely possible they will, but we’re not sure we would, personally. If you show a film too early in the year, it’s easy for Oscar talk to cool closer to the actual season. That said, “The Tree of Life” is said to be experimental and could be a difficult sell, so global praise at Cannes could help a slow-build Oscar campaign.
“Terrence Malick has crafted a deeply moving, keenly observed and magisterial film,” Fox Searchlight Pictures Presidents Stephen Gilula and Nancy Utley said in a statement. “Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and the entire cast’s performances are simply amazing. This is a signature film by a signature filmmaker and we are proud to be releasing it.”
Deadline was both right and wrong. Earlier this week, they said the filmed would be announcing distribution plans imminently (which obviously happened), yet, they also said the film would join the 2010 Oscar race. Either way, the wait — at least for a distributor, and some semblance of a release date — is over. Now we just have to see the damn thing.