Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line, To The Wonder) has put pen to paper once again with his new drama double, Knight of Cups and an untitled offering with both appearing to share sizeable proportions of the same cast. While the former should be appearing in cinemas nationwide later this year the latter has no word of a release date as of yet.
Knight of Cups is set to star Christian Bale (The Dark Knight Rises), Natalie Portman (Black Swan), Cate Blanchett (The Monuments Men), Isabel Lucas, Frieda Pinto (Slum Dog Millionaire), Antonio Banderas, Nick Hofferman (Parks and Recreation) and Imogen Poots (The Look of Love). While, the untitled movie’s cast includes Bale, Portman and Blanchett once again with the addition of Michael Fassbender (Shame), Ryan Gosling (Gangster Squad), Val Kilmer, Benicio Del Toro, and Bérénice Marlohe (Skyfall).
Both movies have a lot of big names behind them, as well as Malick’s writing and directing expertise, but they’re both equally surrounded by mystery, especially the as-yet untitled entry. Little is known about the exact details of either, so it’s entirely possible we may get a couple of films to watch where the storyline details are sketchy at best, which would be pretty impressive all by itself.
Knight of Cups centres around Christian Bale as a man surrounded by excesses of celebrity and all of the temptations that surround it. The untitled movie features two intertwined love triangles with sexual obsession and betrayal at the centre of the movie with the Austin music scene as the backdrop.
The Knight of Cups is rumoured for a release date of later this year, although a trailer hasn’t yet been released for either film and details are still thin on the ground from production studio, Film Nation Entertainment, so it’ll probably be towards the end of the year before it’s released in UK cinemas. They’re both post-production at the time of writing, so it’s not impossible that an early 2014 release date could surface as the year closes out for the first of the two with the second following later in spring.
The name of the first film relates to a Tarot card, also called the Knight of Cups, which depicts a bold knight atop a white horse, holding up his shiny shiny cup of gold with pride. Upright it meant to depict romance, charm, valour and imagination, but when revered it signifies an unrealistic outlook, jealousy and malcontent, so you can see its significance to a film that deals with the perils of fame.
Terrence Mallick’s previous film, To the Wonder has only recently been screened in UK cinemas with themes of love, faith, loyalty and temptation, giving a semblance of thematic continuity with the two upcoming releases. It was recently released on DVD and Blu-ray (17th June 2013) if you missed it at the cinema.
