Terrence Malick gave a rare, in-depth Q&A following a screening of “Voyage of Time” at Washington D.C.’s Air and Space Museum (Thanks to And So It Begins…). It seems like Malick, who has completely ditched filming his movies with concretely written screenplays in his last three films, is go back to, you know, shooting with a script.
“Well, here was a script (in "Voyage of Time,") which was the evolutionary history of the universe [audience laughs]. And lately – I keep insisting, only very lately – have I been working without a script, and I’ve lately repented the idea. The last picture we shot, and we’re now cutting ("Radegund,") went back to a script that was very well ordered,” he said. “There’s a lot of strain when working without a script because you can lose track of where you are. It’s very hard to coordinate with others who are working on the film. Production designers and location managers arrive in the morning and don’t know what we’re going to shoot or where we’re going to shoot. The reason we did it was to try and get moments that are spontaneous and free. As a movie director, you always feel with a script that you’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. And with no script, there’s no round hole, there’s just air. But I’m backing away from that style now.”
What he thinks about his first two movies "Badlands," and "Days of Heaven."
“I think you’re strangely unconscious of change yourself, the way you’re unconscious of your own face. You’re changing but you’re not realizing you’re changing. But you hope that you’re on track with something; that you’ll keep changing. But those early pictures [of mine] feel strange, and five lifetimes ago.”
Is Burr right? Will “Digger” be the ‘Big Lebowski’ of 2026, a misunderstood bomb that finds its audience on home video? ‘Lebowski’ is hardly alone: “Blade Runner,” “The Shining” and “Fight Club” all followed the same path.