Recently, low-key director Terrence Malick was seen hanging out with (and apparently sharing the same clothing taste as) Brad Pitt in Los Angeles. It was a fun story, but it appears there was a bit more behind it. According to one of the commenters on the story, Malick was in town finishing FX work and cutting a trailer — in which Pitt will be doing a voice-over — for his highly-anticipated father/son, space/time drama “The Tree Of Life.” Of course that sounds exciting, (and really, given the reports of Malick giving post-production teams only the info they need to know, take the above with a grain a salt), but if you think we’re getting closer to seeing “The Tree Of Life,” be warned it still might be a way off.
According to Anne Thompson, “Terrence Malick is still not making any commitments” to having the film ready for the Venice Film Festival, where it’s been tipped to appear, and frankly, we can’t say we’re too surprised. Malick is not the kind of filmmaker to be held to anyone else’s schedule, and if he’s still working on FX there’s no way he’s going to commit to anything until that work is done. That said, the Venice festival is still more than two months away, and Malick is the kind of filmmaker who can show up with canisters under his arm at any festival and they’ll move mountains for him. However, Malick’s slow process may be the least of the film’s worries.
As you might recall, Apparition, the indie upstart that was set to distribute Malick’s film nearly fell apart right before the Cannes Film Festival when co-founder Bob Berney abruptly tendered his resignation. With Berney now talking with producer Graham King about starting a distribution arm to his GK Films, if that deal closes, many of Berney’s colleagues who have followed him since their Picturehouse days (some of whom are at Apparition) are expected to rejoin their longtime friend. Bill Pohlad will need to fill in some key positions over the coming months and the personnel shuffle might cause a few hiccups along the way.
Though Apparition’s Cannes entry, the Doug Liman political thriller “Fair Game” will hit theaters later this year via Summit, the fate of “Welcome To The Rileys” with Kristen Stewart and James Gandolfini and even “The Tree Of Life” is unknown, and without Berney’s experience of platforming smaller films insiders are chattering about what might happen. The key will be for Pohlad to get someone in there with similar experience to Berney and do it soon before confidence in Apparition stars wavering. Yes, those are not easy shoes to fill, but with numerous indie houses having closed their doors over the years we can only imagine there are a number of former players waiting to get back in the game.