5 years of editing, 3000 hours of rushes: when will we see Terrence Malick's biblical film?

According to the main actor, Géza Röhrig, the film should be presented on the Cannes Croisette… in 2025.

The last time that Terrence Malick made an official appearance, it was at the Grand Théâtre Lumière in Cannes, in 2019, to present A hidden life. The same year he filmed The Way of the Wind (formerly The Last Planet), historical drama centered on the figure of Jesus of Nazareth.

A global pandemic and a few years later, the last film has still not arrived, while Martin Scorsese has planned to start filming a film adapted fromA Life of Jesus by Shūsaku Endō this year. Last year, however, we were informed that Malick “was very happy” of assembly. Will it be finished soon? Not so fast!

News of Terrence Malick's next film: “He's very happy”

Invited to speak during a round table on his career, Géza Röhrigthe actor who plays Jesus in the film (revealed by The Son of Saul), returned to the biblical project of the director of The Wild Walk, while like every year for the past five years, rumors have been circulating about a potential Cannes release two months before the Festival. Unfortunately, the Hungarian actor assures us that we will have to wait at least another year before discovering the life of Jesus as seen by Terrence Malick, surely in Cannes, conquered territory.

In fifty years of career and 10 feature films, the director has presented three films at the Cannes Film Festival: The Harvests of Heavenwho received the Directing Prize in 1979, The Tree of Lifecrowned Palme d’Or in 2011 and A hidden life.

If one more year to wait seems too long for some, you should know that Terrence Malick has been carrying out this project since the 1990s. At the time, he managed to secure the support of Disney and a substantial budget, but, deprived of final cuthad given up on the film to embark on The Red linereleased in 1998.

The reason for this delay? Terrence Malick would have been around “3000 hours of rushes”joked Mathieu Kassovitz at the microphone of RFM Last year. An exaggerated figure, but not surprising: Terrence Malick, whose cinema philosophy consists of capturing reality, does not hesitate to let his camera roll indefinitely.

Removing the mystery a little The Way of the Windwhich we simply knew was a film divided into several episodes, Géza Röhrig clarified that the film would not be the simple description of the characters of Jesus and Peter (played by Matthias Schoenaerts), but a debate of ideas between the opinion of the latter, who wants Jesus to put an end to Roman oppression, and that of Jesus, who does not see his role in it. No miracles in the film, therefore, but rather a political and civilizational dissection of the figure of the New Testament.

Let us remember that in addition to Matthias Schoenaerts (Pierre), Géza Röhrig (Jesus) will also give the answer to Mark Rylance (Satan), Ben Kingsley, Joseph Fiennes, Tawfeek Barhom, Douglas Booth, Aidan Turner and therefore, Matthieu Kassovitz.

The secrets of The Red Line by Terrence Malick