What Do You Know About "The Tree of Life"

The line-up for the Cannes Film Festival today was announced today and while some major films ("Robin Hood" and "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps") are going to premiere, there is one film that was exempt. The film is Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life," and it is one the most secretive projects in all Hollywood.

Until yesterday I only knew the film as Brad Pitt and Sean Penn vehicle from an acclaimed director. Sure, great, I mean there are lots of movies with huge stars and premiere directors coming out. What makes this one special? Well, hold onto your mind, cause it's about to get blasted into space.

According to recent reports, the film is about, well, life. Not just life as you know it, but the entire history of life in the universe. The first hint about how bananas this movie will be came from Special Effects designer, Mike Fink, who revealed he is working on DINOSAURS for the film. Check out his quote

We’re animating dinosaurs, but it’s not Jurassic Park. The attempt is to treat it as if somehow a camera wound up in the middle of these periods when dinosaurs roamed the earth and creatures first started to emerge from the sea onto the land. The first mammals appearing. We’re doing a number of creatures all seriously scientifically based.

How that relates to the picture above of Brad Pitt is beyond me? Yesterday the internet was really set aflame when Brad Pitt revealed to Empire magazine that film had some sci-fi elements. Check out his quote below:

Well, in a way. It's this little tiny story of a kid growing up in the 50s with a mother who's grace incarnate and a father who's oppressive in nature. So he is negotiating his way through it, defining who he's gonna be when he grows up. And that is juxtaposed with a little, tiny micro-story of the cosmos, from the beginning of the cosmos to the death of the cosmos. So that's where the sci-fi – or the sci-fact – comes in."

Sounds like we got something special on our hands here people. And to put the icing on the cake there are rumors that the filmmakers have worked with NASA to shoot footage. NASA? What? We'll see as more details come out. Granted, I love hype, I'm shaking in anticipation for Iron Man 2 and Inception, yet "Tree of Life" potentially could be crazier than both of them combined, granted I said potentially there.

On the other hand, it also sounds like it could be the a sequel to Darren Aronofsky's epically disjointed film "The Fountain." Interesting that Pitt was attached to that project as well, before Hugh Jackman stepped in.

Either way, the movie is going to be distributed by Summit, who distributed this year's best picture winner "The Hurt Locker," so maybe their streak of winners will continue, sci-fi, dinosaurs and all.