It’s a whirlwind week for Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. Between winning the coveted Palme d’Or over the weekend at Cannes and, tonight, the film’s Hollywood premiere, producers Dede Gardner and Bill Pohlad joined star Jessica Chastain to speak with press about the much-anticipated new film as well as offering updates on two future projects from Malick.
An artist famous for his patient output (The Tree of Life is only the fourth film to follow his 1973 debut, Badlands), Malick has already begun production on two additional works, including the IMAX film Voyage of Time and his untitled romantic drama, which again features Chastain, albeit in a minor role.
Though previously announced in 2009, details on Voyage of Time have been scant. Pohland confirmed that the film, a documentary planned for IMAX theaters, is still in the works.
“It’s still a strong desire of Terry’s,” said Pohland, “and we’re all kind of working on getting it together… There will be footage that we shot during the course of ‘Tree of Life’ that we shot during that movie, but it won’t be that same footage.”
When asked if the documentary would have characters similar to Tree of Life or would, instead, focus on more of the history of the universe material, Pohland hinted that it was too soon to say.
“Largely the latter,” Gardner added, “But, again, it’s going to change, too. There’s some new stuff getting shot.”
Chastain, meanwhile, confirmed that she has shot a scene for Malick’s untitled next project but isn’t sure if her character will make the final cut.
“I feel weird saying I was in two [Malick] films,” she said, “I can say I was on two sets. I’m in one film and I was on another set. I don’t know if I’m going to be in that film. It was a small [part]. I was only there for two days.”
Little is known about the project outside of a cast that includes Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem and Olga Kurylenko.
Chastain does confirm that the style of shooting was very different from Tree of Life. For that film, every take would involve the camera running running through a complete roll of film and Malick would never call “action” or “cut.”
“He constantly changes and that was exciting for me to see,” she added, “Because the one I did with Ben Affleck, I did hear, ‘Cut!’. I remember the first time I was there when, at one point, they stopped it and I looked at him like, ‘That’s a first! What’s going on?’ But as an artist, he’s constantly evolving and is never set in his ways. He never says, ‘This is the way to make a movie.’ I’ll bet you that the one after this, there’ll be even another thing different.”
Check back soon for more about The Tree of Life, hitting theaters in a limited release this Friday.
