While Cannes Film Festival prognosticators continue to ponder if one or both of Terrence Malick's two films in post-production — "The Voyage Of Time" and his still untitled romance, aka "The Burial" — will make it to the Croisette, all we can do is keep pulling together the scraps of info, while we wait for the movies to appear.
The untitled romance has been a long time coming. What we do know so far is that, like "The Tree Of Life," the film draws on Malick's own experiences, telling the tale of a philanderer (Ben Affleck) who feels at loose ends and travels to Paris, where he enters an affair with a European woman (Olga Kurylenko). He returns home to Oklahoma and marries her (for visa reasons), but when the relationship founders, he rekindles a romance with a hometown girl (Rachel McAdams) with whom he's had a long history. Last fall, it was revealed that Amanda Peet and Michael Sheen were also part of the cast of players that includes Javier Bardem, Barry Pepper, Rachel Weisz and Jessica Chastain (though she doubts she'll make the final cut). And now Peet has revealed a bit more to the tale.
Talking with Reuters, the actress gave some detail on who she plays in the movie. "I don't know what I'm allowed to say, but I'm a love interest of Ben's. We shot it in Ohio. I was breastfeeding at the time, so my memory of it is very, very foggy. I didn't have the normal amount of brain cells," she said. And well, that's all you got. We presume that since Affleck is a "philanderer" this means he's got more than one woman in his little black book in the film (though McAdams will be his main squeeze). Sheen also said late last year he plays Affleck's boss in what amounted to a single day of shooting.
Meanwhile, the suddenly very busy Malick embarks on two films this year — "Knight Of Cups" and "Lawless" — both of which will feature Christian Bale, Natalie Portman and Cate Blanchett. Details have been mostly under wraps (though, it has been revealed the latter film will involve sexual obsession and a love triangle of some kind), but Blanchett is keeping her expectations lowered, fully aware that Malick's edit happy ways could leave her out of the movie. “I can’t guarantee I’ll end up in [the final cut], as is his wont,” she told Harper's Bazaar.
So, a few more morsels on what Malick has in the cooker. If and when these will see the light of day still remains up to the director.
