A new Terrence Malick film is always a cause for excitement because of how spread out they are released, with anything between a year and 20 years between projects. But Malick, like any other filmmaker, has a long list of unproduced projects, one of which involved a score written by James Newton Howard titled “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.”
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In a new interview with RogerEbert.com about his score for Paul Greengrass‘s “News of the World,” Howard talked about working with Malick. “‘A Hidden Life‘ was pure and simple ‘If Terry Malick is interested in working with you, you say yes,'” Howard said. “I’d actually started to work with Terry on another movie years ago called ‘Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners,’ which is not a very commercial title.”
“But he came to my studio once—there wasn’t a film yet, just a script—and I’d write music based on our conversations,” Howard continued. “He came over about four times, and then the next week, he just didn’t show up. And I didn’t hear from him for about eight years, until I got a call saying, ‘You want to do [“A Hidden Life”]?’ And I said yes.”
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“Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners” is the title of a 17th-century Puritan spiritual autobiography written by English author John Bunyan while he was serving a twelve-year prison sentence for preaching without a license. We don’t know if Terrence Malick was going to adapt this book, but it’s likely that he was at least inspired by it, given that his 2015 film “Knight of Cups,” was inspired by another book by Bunyan, “The Pilgrim’s Progress.”
