New Plot Details Emerge for Terrence Malick’s Untitled Romantic Drama
The notoriously reclusive Terrence Malick made big news yesterday when he announced he would work next on two mysterious projects, Lawless and Knight of Cups. As fans of the visionary director are still digesting that unexpected shocker, the LA Times has managed to track down someone who read the script for his upcoming Untitled Romantic Drama, starring Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams — the one that he just finished shooting in the spring and is currently editing; this is getting confusing isn’t it?
The report says that the movie “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.”
The romantic drama would be the first Malick movie taking place in a contemporary setting and is said to have “a bit of a happier ending” than his previous films. A person who saw some footage said that the movie still featured the director’s trademark visual style- with “shots of Affleck and McAdams in Malick’s trademark man-in-nature style.” However, the film is reportedly more accessible than say, The Tree of Life, and is already drawing strong interest from U.S distributors even though they have only read the script and seen bits of footage. Best of all, we should expect this movie to be ready for release next year! Isn’t this exciting?
What do you think? Are you excited about this movie?
17 Comments
Interesting. That photo makes it look like they took the fields from Days of Heaven and placed McAdams and Affleck in place of Richard Gere and Brooke Adams
Yea it really does and I think the exact same thing every time I see the picture
Nothing wrong with that though, Days of Heaven was, simply said, a masterpiece.
yeah
This sounds so straightforward but with Terrence Malick, it will be anything but that. I have no doubt it’s going to be gorgeous.
You know, reading that plot description makes me regret even more than Christian Bale had to pull out at the last moment. It would have been a breath of fresh air to see him play that kind of role instead of his usual intense characters.
You got that right, Cas! I LOVE Bale going all gooey romantic in The New World, so I was hoping he’d be like that again here. Let’s hope one of the upcoming ones will have at least some romance in it!
Not too sure about Ben Affleck either… he did give us Gigli after all.
And Kenneth Branagh gave us Wild Wild West. Give the guy a break.
No, I refuse to forgive him for the monstrosities that were Gigli and Daredevil. Great behind the camera but I have yet to see anything that I liked Affleck in.
Ok I lied, I forgot he had more recent movies he was pretty good in.
I just added this plot to the Malick post, wow can’t believe it took so long to finally have the premise. Filming is almost done for this right? In any case, it looks promising, the contemporary setting is quite a change for Malick, too.
Filming was done last done last winter
They did some reshoot in Paris last spring.
So that means it’ll be a year before we hear the plot for his two movies w/ Bale then. He certainly knows how to get his fans all riled up!
The premise seems intriguing but I wouldn’t dwell on anything Malick writes into script since he tends to improvise a lot and deviate completely from the script into the final film.
Also, I think the premise also has a bit of personal element for anyone that knows about Malick’s life. After “Days of Heaven”, he went to Paris and fell in love with some woman there. He took her to the U.S. and that didn’t go well and eventually met up with an old friend who is now his wife.
Interesting background and I can certainly see why he was ready to set that project in motion right after The Tree of Life. It’s true that Malick doesn’t use his script the same way as 99% of Hollywood directors but given that the description already is very broad-stroked, I would think this will in essence be what the story is about.
Wow that is interesting information. He does seem to like to draw inspiration from his own life.
I’m struck by the phrase “a bit of a happier ending.”…. Not a happy one, but a bit of a happier one. I wonder if this will end up turning off some of the hard core Malick fans (and whether they would admit it if it does!) Will they say he’s gone soft on them?
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