Terrence Malick, the steadfast auteur behind films like The New World and Badlands, isn't usually the type to secure a fanboy audience. But he's got one thing going for him with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn in the cast of his next project, The Tree of Life. Add dinosaurs to that mix-- yes, dinosaurs-- and IMAX film, and Malick may soon find himself an unexpected box-office draw.
All this speculation is coming from an article in Empire, the British film magazine with a robust website that isn't featuring the info this time around. Hollywood Elsewhere got its hands on a key paragraph from the print edition, in which visual effects artist Mike Fink talks about his next project. "We're just starting work on a project for Terrence Malick, animating dinosaurs, the film is The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. It'll be showing in IMAX -- so the dinosaurs will actually be life size -- and the shots of the creatures will be long and lingering."
Before now, most people understood the movie to be about a rural Texas family, and somehow Pitt would be playing Penn's father in flashbacks. But with the addition of dinosaurs-- giant freakin' dinosaurs? There's no telling how this movie is going to shake out, but it sounds completely exciting regardless.
