One of the most reclusive filmmakers of all time—at least where the press and publicity is concerned, he hasn’t done an interview since the 1970s and hasn’t posed for an official photograph since before then— Terrence Malick marches to the beat of his own eccentric drum. Literally, the filmmaker works on his own timetable and pretty much does whatever he wants, including taking a 20-year hiatus from filmmaking between 1978’s “Day of Heaven” (which is re-joining the Criterion Collection in a new edition announced today) and 1998’s “The Thin Red Line.”
Malick’s worked at a faster clip of late, releasing six films between 2011 and 2019 (and one extra version of his doc “Voyage of Time,” which hasn’t been seen by the public yet). Could the filmmaker be slowing back down?
His next film is the biblical epic, “The Way of The Wind,” which retells several episodes in the life of Jesus Christ, with a cast that includes Géza Röhrig, Mark Rylance, Joseph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, and Matthias Schoenaerts.
Shot in the summer of 2019, fans have been asking where the film is, and there’s a minor update. It’s still being edited, but it’s far away from release.
“‘It’s very much in the [editing] room at the moment, and the filming is completed,” producer Alex Boden told Variety recently. “We have an amazing cast. It’s another Terrence Malick project, which was filmed this time in several different countries. From a production point of view, it’s a pretty fantastic achievement. Terry is very happy with what he is working on so far is the word, but there are no announcements yet.”
In other words, Malick is going to Malick, and this film could take as long as it needs to take. Still, Malick is a bit notorious for being in the editing room for several years for each film (in the mid-2010s, he shot a few quickly in succession, so while they each took a while, there was more material to work with).
In fact, Mark Rylance himself, who stars in the film as Satan, sort of cautioned that you just better be patient. “[You can never be certain] with him, but I consider it a positive sign,” he told RTL. “It’s like a fine wine or whiskey; it only gets better with time. Terrence isn’t rushing anything, either. This is a very important story for him.”
Rylance also described the shoot, the process, and the making of the film.
“There isn’t much time to converse during film shoots. There I stood, as Satan, with 28 pages of monologue running through my mind, while Jesus barely uttered a word. Most of the time, I tempt Jesus as Satan; it’s not the situation for extensive discussions. During filming, there’s no time for rehearsals, so it’s not the moment for lengthy conversations. It’s akin to a boxer focusing solely on stepping into the ring. Discussing Hungarian history doesn’t help in such moments. Especially not in a Terrence Malick film, where everything is at stake. However, I got along very well with Géza [Röhrig, who plays Jesus]; it was a great honor to act alongside the lead of the ‘Son of Saul’. I believe ‘Son of Saul’ rightfully belongs among the top ten films of all time, and his performance is astounding. I hope that Terrence eventually completes the film.”
Speaking of Malick being in the editing room forever, The Film Stage adds that sources tell them that the withdrawn filmmaker is also working on a longer cut of “To The Wonder,” his 2012 romantic drama with Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Olga Kurylenko, and Rachel Weisz. This wouldn’t surprise at all, really. Malick has released much longer versions of films like “The New World,” and a few years back released a much longer and different version of “The Tree Of Life” via The Criterion Collection. Evidently, this new cut could, according to TFS, “possibly [integrate] footage from Eugene Edwards’ adjacent 2018 docufiction ‘Thy Kingdom Come,’ which is essentially just footage from “To The Wonder” starring Javier Bardem’s character that didn’t make the cut (which you can rent here). So, in other words, Malick shot a lot of things that didn’t make it into the original cut of “To The Wonder” that will likely be integrated back into the film; not a big shocker in that regard since that’s precisely what he did with his previous extended cuts.