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News > Pitt to Star in Malick's Tree of Life

Written by David Morgan 

Brad Pitt is in talks to replace Heath Ledger in writer-director Terrence Malick's new drama Tree of Life. The star will play opposite Sean Penn in the movie that hardly anyone seems to know anything about other than its title. Suffice it to say, it's a Terrence Malick film, and will probably have long, meditative shots of nature mixed with surprising violence over the course of about three hours.

According to Variety, River Road is financing, and Bill Pohlad is producing with Sarah Green (who also worked on Malick's The New World) and Grant Hill.

Comments

StanGable on 12/19/2007 10:57am
"Suffice it to say, it's a Terrence Malick film, and will probably have long, meditative shots of nature mixed with surprising violence over the course of about three hours."

i'm not sure if this is a dig, but Terrence Malick is one of the greatest directors ever. I'm also not sure the 'surprising' nature of the violence in his movies; of the four he's done, one is about serial killers on the lamb (where violence is almost expected around every turn), one is a war movie (again, violence becomes a key ingredient), and a third is about the savagery of cultures clashing in the new world. so yeah i guess some of the violence in 'days of heaven' is surprising when it finally happens... but even then it looms over the entire picture. But maybe you meant that juxtaposed up against the tranquil shots of nature violence seems 'surprising.'
it just struck me as a weird thing to say thats all, thats one of the last things i would take away from a Malick film. If i wanted to make a quick blurb (perhaps thats the problem here-- you have to trivilize an important cinema figure in 25 words or less--so thats not really your fault) about what to expect how about this: "expect the movie to open with the lead characters spoken monologue over beautiful photography for at least 3-5 minutes."

oh, and i am really anticipating this film.
david_morgan on 12/19/2007 5:22pm
No disrespect intended. I'm a Malick fan as well, I was just riffing on his distinctive style. And yes, I was referring to the juxtaposition of the calm scenery with the violence. Maybe you're right about my wording though.
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