“But Pa, Christmas just won’t be the same this year without Mr. Malick’s tree!”
Guess those “unsubstantiated” rumors were correct. And yes, you’ll scream, “gee shocker,” but it’s finally been confirmed as we kind of assumed. Terrence Malick’s “Tree Of Life” is officially incomplete and will not be coming in 2009.
The originally scheduled December 25 date was evidently wishful thinking and Apparition — the studio who is putting out the film — hasn’t even seen the movie yet. “It’s definitely not going to come out this year,” Apparition head Bob Berney told Anne Thompson today. Malick has always taken his time making movies and has apparently been futzing around in the editing room for more than a year (this thing was shot more than two years ago, at least).
Oscar prognosticators take note as this changes the game, though, up to this point, not many of you (including us) have been banking on it.
The last rumors we heard said the filmmakers would try and aim for the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in May and that still seems to be the basic plan, but even Berney isn’t sure when it will be finished. “I can’t tell you when it will come out,” he said.
“The Tree Of Life” stars Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain. For details on the semi-mysterious plot details, see many, many of our back stories, but it’s essentially a life-spanning father-son drama that seems to revolve around daddy issues, forgiveness and grieving. And seemingly the grief is over the death of a parent the character has contentiously mixed feelings for (if we’ve got this right, Pitt plays the father and Penn plays the son grown up many years later). A second film to accompany it will also likely hit in 2010 and it’s more of a mystical and panoramic wildlife documentary (or something) called, “Voyage of Time” that will be presented in IMAX and chronicles the “the birth and death of the universe.” Yes, it sounds bizarre and that’s because it is. More info on that one here.