The New World (Upcoming movie about John Smith)

Entertainment Weekly ^ | 08/10/2005

[loreldan]

When you're called a genius and avoid the press like Howard Hughes and direct only one movie every decade or so, it's an event when you crank out a new one. This time around, Terrence Malick, the media-shy maestro behind Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The Thin Red Line, trains his jeweler's eye on the love story between Native American Pocahontas (15-year-old newcomer Q'Orianka Kilcher) and English explorer John Smith (Colin Farrell) in 17th-century Jamestown, Va.

Malick originally wrote a draft of the screenplay in the late '70s, but much like his own Hollywood ambitions at the time, the project vanished into thin air. The director resurrected the script about three years ago and began casting for his leads. According to producer Sarah Green, Farrell was an obvious choice for John Smith. ''What we know about Smith from his journals is that he was an adventurer,'' she says. ''And when you meet Colin that's the sense you get from him. He's bold and wonderfully unedited. He's not someone who's careful about every word that comes out of his mouth.''

The search for Pocahontas was decidedly more challenging. The filmmakers scoured Native American reservations and chased leads that led them as far away as Australia. Ironically, they found Kilcher in their own backyard: Santa Monica. The actress, whose father is Native Peruvian, and whose first name translates as ''Golden Eagle'' in Quechuan, had never heard of Malick or Farrell when she was cast. ''I grew up without a TV, so I didn't know who anyone was,'' she says.

Christopher Plummer, who plays Capt. Christopher Newport, praises Kilcher as ''unbelievably real and innocent without being cute,'' and adds that carousing with Farrell made him wish he was 28 again. As for working with Malick, Plummer says he considers it a privilege — so long as he's not edited out of the film like Adrien Brody practically was in The Thin Red Line. ''Colin and I teased him about that all the time. I think we shamed him into keeping my scenes.''

[loreldan]

I did a search after I heard about this movie, but I couldn't find any news on this anywhere, even though it's coming out next month. Maybe some FReepers know something about it.

I love American history epics. Here's hoping this one doesn't try to rewrite history.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/new_world/

[Siena Dreaming]

Colin Farrell...isn't he the one who played the gay Alexander?

Ugh...I hate the thought of him as John Smith.

[saganite]

The thin red line was crap. I expect this movie to be a PC cliche.

[Borges]

Malick is a genius and is one of the few American filmmakers with a personal vision. What didn't you like about it TTRL?

[loreldan]

Here's what Rotten Tomatoes says about it...

" …in the beginning all the World was America, and more so than it is now." -John Locke, Second Treatise on government (1690) The New World is an epic adventure set amid the encounter of European and Native American cultures during the founding of the Jamestown settlement in 1607. Inspired by the legend of John Smith and Pocahontas, acclaimed filmmaker TERRENCE MALICK transforms this classic story into a sweeping exploration of love, loss and discovery, both a celebration and an elegy of the America that was…and the America that was yet to come. Against the dramatic and historically rich backdrop of a pristine Eden inhabited by a great native civilization, Malick (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line) has set a dramatized tale of two strong-willed characters, a passionate and noble young native woman and an ambitious soldier of fortune who find themselves torn between the undeniable requirements of civic duty and the inescapable demands of the heart. In the early years of the 17th century, North America is much as it has been for the previous five thousand years—a vast land of seemingly endless primeval wilderness populated by an intricate network of tribal cultures. Although these nations live in graceful harmony with their environment, their relations with each other are a bit more uneasy. All it will take to upset the balance is an intrusion from the outside. One is not long in coming. On a spring day in April of 1607, three diminutive ships bearing 103 men sail into this world from their unimaginably distant home, the island kingdom of England, three thousand miles to the east across a vast ocean. On behalf of their sponsor, the royally chartered Virginia Company, they are seeking to establish a cultural, religious, and economic foothold on the coast of what they regard as the New World. The lead ship of the tiny flotilla is called the Susan Constant. Shackled below decks in her brig is a rebellious 27-year-old named John Smith (COLIN FARRELL), sentence and destined to be hanged for insubordination as soon as the ship reaches land. A veteran of countless European wars, Smith is a soldier of fortune…though fortune has often turned its back on him. Still, he is too talented and popular to have his neck stretched by his own people, and so he is freed by Captain Christopher Newport (CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER) soon after the Susan Constant drops anchor. As Captain Newport knows—and the colonists will soon discover—surviving in this unknown wilderness will require the services of every able-bodied man…particularly one of Smith's abilities. Though they don't realize it at the time, Newport and his band of British settlers have landed in the midst of a sophisticated Native American empire ruled by the powerful chieftain Powhatan (AUGUST SCHELLENBERG). To the colonists, it may be a new world. But to Powhatan and his people, it is an ancient world—and the only one they have ever known. The English, strangers in a strange land, struggle from the beginning, unable—or, in some cases, stubbornly unwilling—to fend for themselves. Smith, searching for assistance from the local tribesmen, chances upon a young woman who at first seems to be more woodland sprite than human being. A willful and impetuous young woman whose family and friends affectionately call her "Pocahontas"—or "playful one"—she is the favorite of Powhatan's children. Before long a bond develops between Smith and Pocahontas (Q'ORIANKA KILCHER in her feature starring debut), a bond so powerful that it transcends friendship or even romance—and eventually becomes the basis of one of the most enduring American legends of the past 400 years. --© New Line Cinema

[Criminal Number 18F]

.isn't he the one who played the gay Alexander?

Alexander the Gay, you pegged him.

I can see it now:

"Uh, Pocohontas, nothing personal dearie, but aren't there any adolescent boys in your tribe? By the way, I love the way you do your hair, it's just divine."

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[saganite]

The scenes where the Japanese soldiers died in agony, some pleading for their lives was a fantasy. The Japanese were fanatical fighters who refused to surrender. It was revisionism at it's worst. The movie also suffered miserably when compared to Saving Private Ryan.

[Paradox]

Not bad on the eyes, the other pictures of her make her look more "native".

[Borges]

Malick doesn't deal in realism of any sort. His movies are fever dreams. It was completely different from Ryan and considerably more original.

[saganite]

I guess that's why I didn't like it. I'm pretty much grounded in reality.

[rwfromkansas]

I bet the Natives will be portrayed as living in a Utopian society free from any sorrow or war etc.

Typical liberal Hollywood crap that the white man is at fault for everything.

[Borges]

Fair enough. That's what documentaries are for. :-)

[Red Badger]

The real Pocahontas/John Smith had a really sad ending.........I wonder if they'll preserve that or Disney-fy it to happily ever after?.'

[loreldan]

You're probably right, but I'm hoping differently.

[Borges]

I had some of that line of thinking in various college courses I took. Weren't the various tribes living here pretty brutal as far as that goes?

[Semper Paratus]

"Brokeback Jamestown?"

[saganite]

I guess if you like fever dreams for movies that's what drugs are for.

[MineralMan]

Here's another shot of the 15-year-old star. She looks just right for the role:

[Borges]

The effect that great Art shold have isn't all that different from the effect narcotics are supposed to have. It's much healthier though.

[saganite]

Maybe if you combined the two you would be "doubly enlightened". I prefer to view art with a more critical eye.