With new report, ‘Tree of Life’s’ Cannes roots go deeper

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A Variety story earlier today reported that Terrence Malick’s ‘The Tree of Life’ will be heading to the Cannes Film Festival, corroborating what’s been assumed since Fox Searchlight set a release date of May 27 back in the fall.

The studio declined to confirm the Cannes slot. (The drama’s premiere on the Croisette will likely become official on April 14, when the festival announces its lineup.)

But perhaps the more interesting question remains unanswered: whether the movie will play in the festival’s competition. A place in that vaunted section would throw a formidable film into the mix against a lineup that could include Steven Soderbergh, Wong Kar Wai, David Cronenberg and other cinema notables, and open it up to potentially wider acclaim -- as well as more intense scrutiny -- than if it played out of competition.

Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain star in Malick’s opus, which takes a mystical and semi-autobiographical look at a boy growing up in the Midwest and a crisis he faces as an adult.

--Steven Zeitchik

twitter.com/ZeitchikLAT

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