Terrence Malick Takes Only Half A Decade To Make A New Film: Preview Of 'The Tree Of Life'

Malick's The Thin Red Line was like Saving Private Ryan mixed with an episode of Planet Earth, scenes of war flanked/interrupted (depending on your opinion) by some stunning shots of nature. It's one of my favourite films of all time but I think many would disagree with me - some people, apparently, feel nothing when they see a solemn Jim Caviezel gazing at the sun setting as Sean Penn grimly reads out a poetic voiceover. To me, that is gold.

And to anyone who has seen and enjoyed that plus Malick's other work, Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The New World, you will be happy to know that the reclusive director's fifth film in 35 years is scheduled for release this year.

Like some sort of reverse Kubrick, the gaps between Malick's projects have been getting shorter; there were twenty years between Days of Heaven (1978) and The Thin Red Line (1998), with only seven between that and his next film, The New World (2005). Now, just five years later, Malick's The Tree Of Life is to be released some time in 2010.

Details released on the project have been cryptic at best, migraine-inducing at worst. Just have a glance at the official synopsis: "the picture is a cosmic epic, a hymn to life." Erm... "We trace the evolution of an eleven-year-old boy in the Midwest, Jack, one of three brothers. At first all seems marvellous to the child. He sees as his mother does, with the eyes of his soul." What? "Framing this story is that of adult Jack, a lost soul in a modern world, seeking to discover amid the changing scenes of time that which does not change: the eternal scheme of which we are a part. When he sees all that has gone into our world's preparation, each thing appears a miracle -- precious, incomparable." Oh...right! It reads like they made it up while they were on drugs.

Then again, story never has been a big part of Malick's work: from the evidence of the plotless Days of Heaven or the rambling The New World, it's clear that, for Malick, it's all about the imagery and the overall feel of the piece. And it's something the director had mastered from his very first piece of work with Badlands - his films are the closest you will ever come to putting a definition to the words 'visual poetry'.

What else do we know about The Tree of Life? For one, effects technician Mike Fink has revealed that the film's FX team are "animating dinosaurs" for what sounds to be a prehistoric sequence charting the history of the Earth, claiming that "I think when it's finished it'll be something that's referred to for years."

Furthermore, unlike Malick's starry two previous projects, we know that the number of well-known thespians working on The Tree of Life are limited to just Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. Knowing this notoriously edit-happy loon, they might be cut out of the film altogether, as Billy Bob Thornton, Mickey Rourke and Martin Sheen were from The Thin Red Line (with Adrien Brody's character, originally the central role, reduced to just five minutes of screen time and two lines in the final cut). Goddamn, he even took out Viggo Mortensen. You just don't know with Malick - his films find their structure and meaning in the edit suite, which could even mean taking Aragorn out of the picture altogether.

Aside from his passion for excising mouth-watering material, the most frustrating thing about Malick is that he is one of the most revered American directors on the planet, a '70s wunderkind, a product of the Golden era of New Hollywood, and yet he has still made only four films in his entire career. "I had four films released in 2009 alone!", workaholic Steven Soderbergh might say in riposte. He sure did - but, then again, no other director comes close to matching the beauty Malick can capture in his lens.

It wouldn't be so bad if, for example, Michael Bay took such long holidays, but the irritating thing is that Malick possesses such talent, with each of his films so far a masterpiece (if not always as a whole, then certainly in terms of cinematography), and we only get to see a new one about as often as we get to see Halley's comet. But, hey, if that takes five years, or, say, even two decades to achieve, then so be it.

See the trailer for Malick's greatest achievement below for a taste of what to expect from The Tree Of Life.