Terrence Malick has addressed the big stuff before - Earth's creation (The Tree Of Life), man, nature and war (The Thin Red Line), um, the dating scene in LA (Knight Of Cups) - but with his first documentary feature, Voyage Of Time: Life's Journey, he's tackling the whole lot. Existence. All of it. We're proud to share its first trailer, narrated by Cate Blanchett, right here.
The latest Malick in what's unquestionably the most fruitful period of the Texan's illustrious career promises a planetary origin story that'll elide seamlessly into a treatise on humanity's very future. He's enlisted VFX maven Dan Glass (The Tree Of Life, Batman Begins) to bring those visions to life. Yes, this one'll have dinosaurs too.
"Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey is an exploration into our planetary past and a search for humanity’s place in the future," runs the synopsis. "Humming with the energy of nature itself, the film melds innovative special effects with
awe-inspiring footage from around the globe, in search of what lasts, what endures, through time’s changing scenes."
Unusually, Malick has picked not one but two of his old collaborators to narrate two completely different formats. The full-length, 90-minute experience is narrated by Blanchett and promises to take audiences on "on a poetic journey full of open questions". Brad Pitt, meanwhile, is on voiceover duties for Voyage Of Time: The IMAX Experience, a 45-minute version billed as "a giant-screen adventure for audiences of all ages".
Our advice? See both. It's not every day there are two Malick releases out at the same time.