Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" may have a summer release date, but it's further away from being a typical summer movie than any other film released this season.
At times an intimate coming-of-age story and at times a cosmic meditation on grace, life and creation, Malick's Palme d'Or winner is a remarkable achievement that has divided critics but is essential viewing for serious movie fans.
(Whether the film, which debuts in limited New York and Los Angeles release Friday, will translate to the casual multiplex crowd, even with Brad Pitt in a leading role, is another matter entirely.)
Also Read: Outside of Cannes, 'Tree of Life' Remains Magnificent and Maddening
Since the famously reclusive Malick is not one to explain himself, TheWrap spoke to producers Bill Pohlad and Dede Gardner (left, at the Cannes awards ceremony) and to special effects supervisor Dan Glass about the various stages of Malick's lyrical, fragmented, occasionally perplexing but always rapturous reverie.
(Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
1. GENESIS
BILL POHLAD: We were working on another project, "Che," which Terry was going to direct at the time. It was a daunting project, and Terry's script for "Che" was not an easy read, or a typical read.
And right in the middle of our discussions about "Che," he sat down and told me this three-hour story that was "Tree of Life." At that point, half of it was the creation of the world and the universe, and the other half was a family growing up in a small town in Texas. And after three hours I was like, "Wow. That's one of the greatest stories I've ever heard, but if you're asking me to get involved in it now, I think we've got enough on our plate."
And then in the end, neither of us ended up doing "Che." Steven Soderbergh did it, Terry went off and did "The New World," and I went in another direction as well. But we kept in touch, and he sent me the "Tree of Life" script three or four years later.
DAN GLASS: It was a little over five years ago that I had my first meetings with Terry. My first impression was that he's a wonderful, sweet-natured human being. He's a very humble, very mild and gentle individual, and he has this wonderful way of making everybody around him feel like they're equals in terms of knowledge.
It's like he strains to remember things: "Well, it’s something like this … " (laughs) But he'll rattle off the correct scientific names for a dozen species, and know all the eras in sequential order for the period of history that we were dealing with. He's a vast encyclopedia, but he doesn’t wear it in a way that is overbearing.
DEDE GARDNER: Brad [Pitt] and I were talking to Terry about another project, and Terry mentioned this one to us.
