No Tree in 09?

Another movie of interest was pushed back today, Terrence Malick’s TREE OF LIFE.

It was originally thought that TREE would be released by Christmas but will have to wait. Bob Burney, chief of the film’s distributor Apparition said this about the year end opening, “Wishful. It’s definitely not going to come out this year.”

What might be even more disappointing for the film is that the push back takes it out of contention for the 2009 Oscars. It certainly would have been nominated. The film has two amazing actors: Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. Plus a heartfelt story about the loss of a son’s innocence and the struggle to come to grips with it into adulthood. This is Malick’s fifth film in the span of 35 years which may have to do with him being a bit of a perfectionist. The director shot the film in 2008 in Austin, Texas and spent more than the past year in the editing room. Needless to say, he’s not in much of a hurry.

TREE was also potentially going to play at Sundance but with the push back is more likely to play at Cannes in May. As for an exact date on the movies release all Burney could say was, “I can’t tell you when it will come out.” Although this is sort of a bummer, I’d rather Malick take a million years trying to perfect it than just put some shitty drama out there.