Well, whether you actually like Terrence Malick or are just pretending to so you feel like you’re part of the online “in” crowd, you can now circle May 27, 2011 on your calendars Box-Office Mojo reports Fox Searchlight finally set a release date for Malick’s The Tree of Life and the anticipation now has a target to aim for.
Previous rumors were the film would debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January after Fox Searchlight acquired distribution rights in September, but now a Cannes 2011 release looks far more likely, just prior to its official release. What this does for the film’s Oscar chances isn’t quite clear as the Academy tends to exhibit fairly short term memory, but early year films have performed well at the Oscars in the past so this may end up as one more example.
The much anticipated film is described as an impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950s chronicling the journey of the eldest son, Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn), through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years – trying to reconcile the complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.
Terrence Malick has directed such films as Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line and A New World and love for his poetically epic features is a rather universal one so expect a lot of anticipation as we get closer and closer to May.
