Malick Casts Affleck, Bardem, McAdams and Kurylenko

[Laderlappen]

or....does it?

I'm wondering now if that "pre-production footage" that was shot with Bale and Haley Bennett at ACL in September is actually *part* of this project with Affleck and MacAdams. There may be several diverse storylines going on here in an anthology-type approach, Magnolia-style.

No, thats a completely different movie.

 

[Rocketman]

Wait, so Malick was making three movies at the same time?

 

[kvz5]

He's done filming this one. It's already on post-prod. I don't think they've officially started the one with Bale yet except for those 3 days where they shot scenes during ACL. It will not surprise me if Bale does another movie first before shooting the Malick film.

 

[cherokeesam]

Wait, so Malick was making three movies at the same time?

Apparently so. Lawless and Knight of Cups shooting next year; *this* untitled project apparently is a wrap.

 

[kvz5]

The LA Times have some tidbits about this one:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/11/terrence-malick-burial-ben-afleck-rachel-mcadams.html

So what’s the movie really about?

There have been scattered reports about it, but according to a person who read the script, it’s a love triangle with an international subtext. It's also the only film Malick has ever done that's set in the same time as the period in which he's making it.

Here’s the breakdown, with the caveat that things could change drastically from script to screen (on “Tree,” Malick would sometimes rewrite scenes on the day of the shoot).

Basically, it concerns a philanderer (Affleck) who, feeling at loose ends, travels to Paris, where he enters a hot-and-heavy affair with a European woman (Olga Kurylenko). Said Lothario returns home to Oklahoma, where he marries the European woman (in part for visa reasons). When the relationship founders, he rekindles a romance with a hometown girl (Rachel McAdams) with whom he's had a long history.

According to the person who read the script, there's a bit of a happier ending than some other Malick movies (or at least a less ambiguous one than at the end of “Tree&#8221. And a person who saw the footage said there's also the trademark visual showiness--shots of Affleck and McAdams in Malick's trademark man-in-nature style--as well as intriguing supporting actors: Javier Bardem, for instance, plays a priest whom Affleck’s Lothario visits for advice.

The more accessible dramatic premise makes one think Malick could be heading to a commercial place, at least by Malick standards. Also helping the film's prospects is the overall visibility of the director's work: After bringing out just four Malick movies in 35 years, he now can churn out three films in just a couple of years. We still wouldn't count on any interviews, though.

 

[cherokeesam]

"It's also the only film Malick has ever done that's set in the same time as the period in which he's making it."

Looks like Lawless will be the second such.

But I'm assuming Knight of Cups will return Malick to his penchant for the past, and will be set in medieval times....or earlier: I'm thinking that one might, in fact, turn out to be the rumored Sir Gawain and the Green Knight project he was supposed to be working on.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

I'm a bit confused, this article points out that the plot seems to be more accessible but there was reports saying that this film is more experimental than The Tree of Life. I mean, "experimental" is a pretty vague description and it could mean many things, but if that report is true, doesn't it go against this new plot details?

This news is old but since it wasn't posted, I figure that I should just post it anyway.

Michael Sheen & Amanda Peet Are Also In Malick's Next

 

[kvz5]

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/jack-fisk-climbs-the-tree-of-life

Fisk has since completed another film with Malick, which he describes as "'Tree of Life' on steroids." The untitled love story stars Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams about a man who reconnects with a woman from his hometown after his marriage falls apart. Of course, it's deeply personal, but this one's shot in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

"One morning Terry showed up and said he needed a location with some water and we pretty much had scoured the town," Fisk relates. "But John Patterson, the location manager, and I went down some back roads where the city was digging a culvert and it had been flooded by a lot of rain. And it became a magical location in the backyards of a neighborhood. We went running back and told Terry and John called the city manager asking for permission to shoot there and the construction people said they would shut off their equipment for three hours. And the whole company rushed over in vans and we shot a scene.

From Rachel Weisz:

She describes the experience as “unlike any other I’ve ever had. Unorthodox would be a massive understatement. There isn’t really a script, you don’t know what the story is, you don’t know who the other characters are. I knew I was Ben Affleck’s sister and that he was in love with two different women but otherwise I didn’t know what was going on.”

Although Weisz didn’t know what to expect going in and ended up suitably confounded, she entrusted herself to the auteur’s eccentric methodology. The shoot was daylight only, with the actress turning up each morning “and just seeing what would happen… it’s a hard thing to explain but we would have to walk on an axis to keep pulling the camera in certain directions and Terence would be throwing lines at you and you would just say them. It’s very weird! It’s not like, ‘I’m this character and these are my lines and I’m going to prepare them.’ You just have to surrender to it.”

Most of Weisz’s scenes were with Affleck, also she also acted opposite the actresses playing his two lovers, Rachel McAdams and Olga Kurylenko. She’s not convinced we’ll see her in the final film, though. “As you know, a lot of people shoot with him and don’t make it on the screen. I did it for the experience of working with him but it was really quite random. He’s after those unexpected, random moments that will make it into the poem that is a Terence Malick movie…”

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

Apparently the film is titled To The Wonder and it has been rated R for some sexuality/nudity.
http://www.filmratings.com/filmRatings_cara/reports/s10746885.htm

 

[darkseid26]

I like it.

 

[kvz5]

We finally have a title!

Nudity? Olga I guess.

 

[kvz5]

Some updates:

- Title was confirmed to be "To The Wonder".
- The film will debut at the Venice Film Festival.
- Running time is 112 minutes.

 

[kvz5]

Synopsis:

Spoiler

TO THE WONDER, written and directed by Terrence Malick, is a romantic drama centered on Neil, a man who is torn between two loves: Marina, the European woman who came to United States to be with him, and Jane, the old flame he reconnects with from his hometown. In TO THE WONDER, Malick explores how love and its many phases and seasons – passion, sympathy, obligation, sorrow, indecision – can transform, destroy, and reinvent lives.

As TO THE WONDER opens, Neil and Marina are together on the French island of Mont St. Michel – known in France as The Wonder of the Western World (Merveille de l’Occident) – and invigorated by feelings of being newly in love. Neil, an aspiring writer, has left the United States in search of a better life, leaving behind a string of unhappy affairs. Looking into Marina’s eyes as the Abbey looms in the distance, Neil is certain he has finally found the one woman he can love with commitment. He makes a vow to be true to this woman alone.

Marina, quiet and beautiful, with flashes of a mischievous humor, is divorced and the mother of a 10-year-old daughter, Tatiana. At 16, Marina left the Ukraine for Paris without a cent to her name. There, she married a Frenchman who abandoned her after just two years, leaving her alone with Tatiana in a studio apartment. Marina was forced to work a variety of temporary jobs to make her way. Having nearly given up hope, Marina is overcome with joy to be in love with Neil, her salvation from an unhappy future.

Two years later, Neil and Marina are living in a small town in Oklahoma, close to where Neil grew up. Neil, having given up his hopes of becoming a writer, has taken a job as an environmental inspector. Neil is happy with his work, but his love for Marina cools as she, for her part, is frustrated by the holding pattern she feels she is in with Neil. She fears her youth – and happiness – are slipping away. In spite of her anxieties about Neil, Marina initially feels at home in Oklahoma, embraced by the open space and sky, and soothed by the sounds that come from the wind harp that animates breezes into songs.
Seeking advice, Marina turns to another exile in the community, a Catholic priest named Quintana. We learn that Father Quintana has come to grapple with his own dilemmas, as he harbors doubts about his vocation. He no longer feels the ardor he knew in the first days of his faith, and wonders if he ever will again.

Professional life throws Neil into conflict as well, when he discovers that a smelting operation in town is polluting the soil and water and threatening the health of future generations. His concerns fail to persuade his neighbors, who depend on the smelter for their livelihoods. Under pressure to keep quiet, Neil must once again weigh the consequences of his actions.

Neil’s doubts about Marina intensify. This, coupled with the fact that Marina’s visa is soon to expire, leads her to return to France with her daughter. In her absence, Neil reconnects with Jane, an old friend. As the two of them fall deeply in love, Neil finds this new relationship far less complicated. Yet when word comes to him that Marina has fallen on hard times and her daughter has gone to live with her father and refuses to have anything more to do with her, he finds himself gripped by a sense of responsibility for her wellbeing, and arranges for her return to the United States.

Neil’s entanglements with the two women in his life, and Father Quintana’s struggle with his faith, force them both to consider different kinds of love. Should the commitment they each made be undertaken as a duty, sometimes full of effort? Or should we accept that love often changes, and doesn’t always last? Can sorrow bind lovers more tightly than joy?

More details here - http://thefilmstage.com/news/terren...h-complete-synopsis-full-tracklist-much-more/

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Olga, Weisz and McAdams. Imagine the possibilities...

 

[Prison Mike]

I read that Weisz was cut from the movie.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

I'm disappointed that Weisz is cut from the film but really, this isn't a surprise considering Malick's film history. Speaking of which, Deadline has reported that Barry Pepper, Michael Sheen and Amanda Peet have all been completely removed from the film, as well.

I'm eager to see what this film will ultimately be, I know that some reports has been calling it Malick's most experimental film to date, while others suggest that it's a more traditionally plot-driven style akin to Badlands. Either way, I'm interested.

 

[Heisenberg]

Ben Affleck was quoted as saying that it makes "Tree Of Life look like Transformers" so I would suggest it's probably going to be pretty experimental. He also said “The film feels to me like more a memory of a life than a literal story in real time of someone’s life, the way movies more commonly are. This pastiche of impressionistic moments, skipping across the character’s life and moving in a nonlinear way, mirror, in my mind, the way one remembers one’s life. It’s a little hypnotic and you’re a little bit in a daze — it’s more fluid than real life is.”

 

[terry78]

You know how us guys named Terrence are. We screw mother****ers' minds.

 

[Project862006]

playlist loved it and they say jessica chastain has been cut from the film too

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplayl...w-heartfelt-film-of-loss-and-longing-20120902

and they say the lead really is Kurylenko who gives a great performance

Former Bond girl Kurylenko, meanwhile, is a revelation. It’s arguably Marina’s film more than anyone else’s, starting and ending on her, and we suspect she gets the most screen time. The actress is luminous in the part, though, a somewhat silly, often child-like woman unable to get her lover to meet her halfway (she reminded us of Nora from Ibsen's "A Doll's House", curiously), and her heartbreaking turn should open a lot of doors for her.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Makes sense. So much of it seems built around her. Also love that she seems to be getting great reviews. So much more then that incredibly pretty face.

 

[kvz5]

Olga was the only one who was at the Venice press conference. Also, the producers confirmed that she is the lead.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/09/ven...-says-no-question-olga-kurylenko-is-the-lead/

As is typical with a Terrence Malick film, there was a lot of mystery surrounding To The Wonder ahead of its Venice debut this morning. The recent confirmation of who made the director’s final cut was followed by today’s revelation that Olga Kurylenko plays the film’s central character. But it’s Ben Affleck, with only a handful of lines in the finished film, and Rachel McAdams, ultimately in a small role, who feature in the only photo from the film that’s been in circulation for months. Asked at the pic’s press conference why that was and how she felt about it, Kurylenko deferred to the producers, “I’m just as curious as you,” she said. Producer Sarah Green jumped in to say the still was released after some early footage was shot. “We have been advised to stand by,” on publicity materials until distribution is in place, she said. “It’s obviously no question that Olga is the lead.”

As expected, Malick was not in Venice today for the premiere. “He’s buried in work,” said Green. The film left the Lido divided this morning and reviews that have trickled out thus far are respectful, if not glowing. Green asserted Malick doesn’t read reviews, “He just works.” Kurylenko also provided some commentary on Malick’s method. Her character spends most of the movie in constant movement – twirling is big as I said earlier today. When asked about it, she said, “Often (Malick) told the actors: ‘Throw away the words, don’t speak them, think them.’ He’s persuaded silence is much stronger.” She contends the two had a sort of “telepathy,” adding, “He didn’t really need to speak to me, I understand him so well. He feels people… I think he’s psychic.”

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I am now even more interested.

 

[matrix_ghost]

http://www.deadline.com/2012/09/ven...e-malicks-divisive-to-the-wonder/#more-328237

Ben Affleck appears in most of To The Wonder, but he probably has less than 10 lines, an occupational hazard that goes along with working on a Malick picture.

THis is something that i have problems with when watching Malick movies. THey've been playing Tree Of Life the past few months here on tv and i still haven't been able to wach the movie in one setitng simply because of the fact that Malick uses images to tell the story. Probably not the right word to use it but it bores me. It's also due to the fact that i'm watching the movie at home which instantly results in my attention span reducing dramatically. IN a cinema at least i can fully "dedicate" myself to watching a movie but here it's a problem.
It's not with all movies though

 

[kvz5]

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

Reading the (unsurprising) divisive impressions of the film from Venice has gotten me even more excited than I was before. With that said, I am quite curious to see what the response will be as it heads to TIFF. Looking forward to Kurylenko's performance, a lot of reviews I've read seem to be enthralled by her screen presence. Hope it won't be long until the film lands a U.S. distribution deal, so we can get a trailer.