Here’s Brad Pitt to tell you about life, the universe and everything. He’s the narrator on Voyage of Time, Terrence Malick’s new documentary, and he’ll rattle through explaining the entirety of entirety in a blistering 40 minutes.
“The past, the present, the future. Experience the unfolding of time,” Pitt intones as stars erupt and waterfalls tumble in the Voyage of Time trailer. Those of us who sat through To the Wonder will know exactly what he means.
An Imax “cosmic experience”, according to the press blah, Voyage of Time will take the audience from the Big Bang to the dinosaurs to “our present human world ... and beyond”. The film, once described by Malick as “one of my greatest dreams”, was the subject of a lawsuit in 2013 when a group of investors sued him for allegedly “forgetting” to make the documentary. He’s had his memory jogged, so here’s the trailer, sumptuous and slow-moving, sending us floating through canyons and over a future cityscape, rustling through a pine forest and very close – too close! – to someone’s eye.
Voyage of Time, along with a longer version, Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey, narrated by Cate Blanchett, are being presented as documentary companion pieces to Malick’s 2011 Palme d’Or winner Tree of Life. That film, which starred Pitt, was interspersed with scenes of the galaxy going about its business accompanied by a voiceover pondering the meaning of existence.
The trailer rolls on. A prehistoric man (played by Sean Penn – maybe?!) swipes at his reflection in a pool of water. The tide washes up a beach. An octopus swings towards the camera before turning tentacle on us and swimming away. He’s probably peeved that Terry cut all his lines.
