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Friday, April 11, 2008
‘Tree of Life’ set in Waco?
It’s no secret that director Terrence Malick likes to keep his projects under wraps until they hit theaters. If the practice of signing non-disclosure agreements to work on a film wasn’t already around, Malick would’ve pioneered it. But being particularly interested because the movie is filming three blocks from my house in Smithville, I’ve been able to piece together a few things. (But as Adrien Brody, “star” of “The Thin Red Role,” can tell you, it’s all subject to change.)
For instance, Smithville is standing in for 1950s Waco, where Malick grew up. We know this because the film has asked the Waco Tribune to make some mock 1950s front pages. Could this be Malick’s first personal memoir film?
Brad Pitt plays the father and Jessica Chastain is the mother of three boys, ages 7- 12. One scene filmed Tuesday was at a barbecue pit on Lee Street and one witness told me that Pitt was driving three boys in a vintage 1950’s car. The day before filming started, the three kids were hanging out at the house on Burleson Street where the title tree is planted. The temporary schoolhouse where all the kids are being tutored is across the street. I asked the teacher, the only adult around, if I could take a picture of the “Tree of Life” and one of the young co-stars, in a colorful Texas drawl, asked me if I knew which tree it was. I think we’ve found the film’s narrator.
A couple days before filming started, there was a casting call for newborn babies, which makes me think the film will follow those three boys from creation to old age or maybe even death. Isn’t the Tree of Life from the book of Genesis?
Title tree (photo by M.C.)
Still don’t know what Sean Penn’s role will be. He was spotted in Austin a couple weeks ago, but no one in Smithville has seen him and he’s been busy in the Bay Area getting back with his wife. Word was that he had only a small role. That’s all the news for now from your Burleson Street correspondent.
Well, actually there’s one other thing. Another publication printed the rumor that someone had been defecating on the front porch of the film house. Not true, says the chief of police. The house is under surveillance around the clock, lest some Brad Pitt fan want something he touched.
Pitt’s porch (photo by M.C.)
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In defense of Ernie Cline
In our recent post about Austin “Fanboys” scripter Ernie Cline — scroll down just a bit — we suggested that the synopsis of his latest screenplay sounds “suspiciously” similar to the hot doc “King of Kong.”
A sharp reader, whose comment we’ve posted, points out that Harry Knowles read the new script in 2006, well before “Kong.”
Read Harry’s Ain’t It Cool News post defending Cline’s work HERE. Make sure to peruse the comments as well. Quite a lively symposium going on there.
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Swimming for dollars
UT film grad Matt Cook’s new documentary “Swim” is making the rounds at film festivals, including the GI Film Festival in Washington and the Jackson Hole Film Festival in Wyoming.
Cook and the film’s subjects — Rush Vann and David Broyles (son of formerly Austin-based screenwriter and Texas Monthly co-founder Bill Broyles) — are Iraq war veterans. “Swim” chronicles Vann and Broyles trying to raise $100,00 for disabled war vets by — you got it — swimming.
“As symbolic awareness,” Cook tells us, “they decide to attempt to become the 16th and 17th Americans to swim the Strait of Gibraltar, a feat fewer Americans have accomplished than climbing to the summit of Mount Everest. The film follows them as they train in Lake Austin, then on to Spain for the actual swim.”
Watch a clip:
We will definitely be following the film as it gets closer to playing Austin, so keep an eye peeled.
