Terrence Malick’s Gosling Film ‘Knight Of Cups’ Won’t Be An Experimental Mess

We were extremely excited at what would come from Ryan Gosling’s collaboration with experimental Tree of Life director Terrence Malick, and then the world reacted to Malick’s latest experiment To The Wonder.

Our fears of Malick ultimately wasting Ryan Gosling’s performance in the upcoming Knight of Cups were raised, considerably. Of the new film Gosling had said: “There was no script. I think he used to have to write them and now I think they’re onto the fact that he doesn’t use them anyway so they’re not requiring them.” Now this wouldn’t usually alarm us, because there have been directors that pull out performances on improvisation alone, but as of late Malick’s track record hasn’t been the best.

To The Wonder started out with a ton of buzz around it, mostly because of its bare plot and the mystery surrounding the production. Then it made its debut at the Venice Film Festival, and critics were so offended that some booed. The elusive director offered no explanation, but its backdrop would-be star Ben Affleck who acted more as a model for scenery than a main performer said Malick “makes ‘Tree of Life’ look like ‘Transformers.'”

Leave it to Ryan Gosling to change the game up for Malick. While at the TCM Classic Film Festival the Knight of Cups editor Billy Weber revealed that the new film starring Gosling and Rooney Mara will not be a repeat of To The Wonder. Weber explains, “To The Wonder’ is a meditation. I don’t think ‘Knight of Cups’ or the next one will be like that, but I’m not positive…I know what the story is. There will be more dialogue in it.”

So far there’s no official plot synopsis for Knight of Cups, so we can only hope with Ryan Gosling and Rooney Mara’s inclusion, that Malick won’t make To The Wonder look like Transformers in comparison.