As the days roll by in 2010, it looks less and less likely that a birth for Terrence Malick’s long-awaited, highly-anticipated (to say the least) “The Tree Of Life” will come this year.
Indiewire’s Todd McCarthy, who is also on the selection committee for this year’s New York Film Festival, has blogged that “The Tree Of Life,” at one point, was a possibility to join the line up of the upcoming NYFF, with early promises of a completed print arriving for festival organizers to watch. Unfortunately, in a fate that the Cannes, Venice and Toronto Film Festivals similarly suffered, word arrived that the film wouldn’t be ready. Shock!
McCarthy and his fellow NYFF committee members were first informed that it would “almost certainly be ready” for a potential premiere in New York and “received periodic updates and tentative promises about the imminent arrival of the film for us to view; even well into the second week [of selection] we were still being thus tantalized. Finally, of course, came word that Malick was still not done and it now seems clear the picture will not be opening this year.”
“I’m convinced we won’t be seeing ‘The Tree of Life’ until, at the earliest, the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, “he concludes. ” Or perhaps it could turn up at the New York Film Festival a year from now.” And we’re inclined to believe McCarthy given that as an organizer for the New York Film Festival, not only has he seen pretty much every movie that’s going to be coming out this year, he tends to have a bit more of an inside track on this stuff. That said, the topic is becoming a good/tired topic of chatter around The Playlist water cooler with some of us predicting the film will arrive first in a critics-only, awards-contending screening at the very end year to be followed by a wider release in 2011 (much like he did with “The New World”) . We’ve heard other colleagues guessing that the film will premiere at the Rome Film Festival in October. Why Rome? Well, Malick appeared at the festival in 2007 for a public Q&A, a somewhat surprising move by an otherwise reclusive and private director. Or maybe Malick will screw with us all and dump it unceremoniously on VOD.
In the meantime, here’s a short video of “Covert Affairs” star Kari Machett discussing her own experiences on the film which she interestingly describes as “like a big improv with Sean Penn and with Terrence Malick guiding you along the way.” No details yet on who she plays. Updated: Jeff Wells talked to a source that said McCarthy’s guess is just what it sounds like speculation and “no decision has been made” about it’s release date yet.