Set Photo: Ben Affleck Filming On Terrence Malick's Untitled Romance Drama

Ok, "Tree Of Life" is in the can and set for a May 27, 2011 release date (it’ll likely premiere at the Cannes Film Festival a few days before the picture goes into regular theatrical release) so onto Terrence Malick‘s next film, an untitled feature that, shockingly, is already shooting in Oklahoma and not waiting five years to gestate.

We’ve already seen set photos of Olga Kurylenko, learned that Javier Bardem and Barry Pepper will play priests, and we know that the picture will also star Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck, and Rachel Weisz.

It appears Weisz and McAdams haven’t started shooting — or at least no photographic evidence exists yet — but Affleck has now arrived in Oklahoma and set photos have arrived courtesy of the Osage News. The other basic element we all know is that the picture is a romantic drama — or a "a powerful and moving love story” on IMDB — but deeper details haven’t emerged yet. Here’s a bit of speculation on our part: if all these actors are shooting their parts independently (aside from Pepper and Bardem; their roles suggesting some kind of spiritual element), are the characters in the film disparate people who never meet and are only tied to the clergymen? Who knows, that’s just a random guess and we’re sure that more plot and story details will eventually surface.

An interesting note though, on Malick’s IMDB page, he is credited with a Special Thanks on both Affleck’s "Gone Baby Gone" and "Good Will Hunting." We’re not quite sure what that’s about, but perhaps the Affleck/Malick relationship has been brewing for several years? Again, just a random guess. No release date for Malick’s untitled romance drama exists and we can only imagine — given how long "Tree Of Life" took to get a firm release date — that it’s at least a year and some away.