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Watch: Terrence Malick & Christian Bale Attempt to Film at ACL Show

by Alex Billington
September 19, 2011
Source: The Film Stage

The plot thickens. Over the weekend, we wrote about news that Terrence Malick has been spotted at the Austin City Limits festival this weekend, filming Christian Bale at various concerts from Coldplay to Bright Eyes. Originally, some early photos started showing up, but now an actual video has hit the web via The Film Stage, first posted on Twitter, where it has since been pulled (we've put up another version below). This amateur video features Malick actually filming Bale and directing him, which is amazing to see, for this still unknown and untitled film, which might not be that Jerry Lee Lewis film. See the master at work below!

This is a bit different that normal set photos, because we still have no idea what he's working on and we're trying to piece this together, and it's footage straight from ACL itself, as they're walking through the crowd. You can also notice a very light gray color to Bale's hair on the sides, and those sunglasses, so he's definitely in character for Malick's new film. This video was shot during the Cut Copy show, and others have seen them all over at various concerts throughout the weekend. Here's a working upload of the original footage:

The other interesting thing to note about this new project from Malick is that young actress Haley Bennett has been spotted with them, filming scenes as well, at ACL. Beyond that, it's rumored that Ryan Gosling is also in the cast, but we haven't seen him yet. While its known that Malick has a Jerry Lee Lewis musician biopic in the works, this might not be it. The best speculation comes from The Playlist: "It should be noted that Bale does bear a striking resemblance to some kind of hybrid of Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison in these pictures given his head-to-toe black outfit. If we were to take a random, wild stab in the dark, perhaps Bale is playing a mentor to Bennett who plays an up-and-coming musician? Again, just a wild guess."

Either way, this is definitely some kind of story involving a musician(s), and we're curious to see if this raw footage from ACL will be made to look period for the film later, or actually part of a contemporary new story from Malick. There are a handful of more photos and videos over at TFS and on Playlist featuring Bale, Bennett and Malick all around ACL this past weekend. What makes all this so intriguing is that we know nothing about it, and it's exciting watching them actually shooting an unknown film, the second new one in the works from Malick since Tree of Life. We'll keep you updated on any other details. What is he up to?!

Filed under Hype, Indies, Rumors, To Watch

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