The Tree of Life: A Conversation With Producer Dede Gardner

Very few people get to produce movies. Even fewer get to produce films with filmmaker Terrence Malick, who has only made a handful of movies over the past forty years: Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line and The New World.
His latest, the acclaimed drama (and my pick for best film of 2011 so far) The Tree Of Life, arrived on the scene this past May and has now debuted on Blu-ray Disc and DVD from Fox Home Entertainment.

I was fortunate to recently talk on the phone with one of The Tree of Life’s producers, Dede Gardner, about the film, what it meant to her and what it was like to work with Malick.

Thank you for taking the time out to talk to TheHDRoom about The Tree of Life. I just have to start off by saying that I thought this film was the best movie I have seen in years.

Thank you! That is so nice of you to say.

What was it like working with Terrence Malick?

It was a total pleasure, just a pleasure. He’s enormously intelligent, personable, generous, funny and friendly. He’s really down to earth and lovely to spend time with and obviously, insanely gifted. Being a longtime fan of his work, working with him was an added thrill. His decision to live a private life has led people to think that he can’t be a normal guy, but nothing could be further from the truth.

You’re President of Plan B Entertainment (Brad Pitt’s production company). How did you become part of the project? Did it go through Plan B first or was it that Brad Pitt first got the role as the father and Plan B came on board after that?

No, Plan B had been involved with the production of The Tree of Life before the decision had been made to have Brad star in it. Brad and I were talking to Terry and Sarah Green (also a producer on the film) about another project. In the course of that dialogue, Terry started to talk about Tree of Life. It was very obvious that this project was incredibly important to him, was something he was very committed to get made and that it would be difficult to get made. At that point, we jumped on board and told him that we would help in any way we can. Much later on, the decision was made for Brad to be in the film.

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