Terrence Malick waited six years between his last film and this summer's "The Tree of Life," but there will no such delay for his next film. Or the two after that.
Malick, who is currently directing Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams in the (maybe related) followup to "The Tree of Life," announced on Tuesday the names and casts of the two films that will follow that one.
First, he'll shoot "Lawless," which will feature the all-star cast of Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. Immediately after, Malick will go into production on "Knight of Cups," which will return Bale and Blanchett, and add Isabel Lucas to the mix.
Malick, the enigmatic director who has released just five films since his 1973 debut, is no stranger to working with star-studded call sheets. "The Tree of Life" featured Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, and introduced Jessica Chastain, who has gone on to star in a plethora of movies this year. He worked with Bale on 2005's "The New World," which also starred Colin Farrell. "The Thin Red Line," which came out in 1998, starred Penn, Nick Nolte, John Travolta, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, John Caveziel and Adrien Brody.
The six years between "The New World" and "The Tree of Life" wasn't close to the longest gap between Malick's films; he waited 20 years after 1978's "Days of Heaven" to release "The Thin Red Line."