Terrence Malick's Producers Talk Their 14-Year Journey on Making 'Voyage of Time&#039…

Few films this year live up to the promise of their title quite like Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience. The new documentary from Terrence Malick (The New World) is a remarkable accomplishment that beautifully blends together everything from the dawn of time to the age of dinosaurs to present day. Seeing it at one of the few IMAX laser theaters in the world, the Bob Bullock Museum Theatre in Austin, TX, was a truly immersive experience. The sound is incredible, the visuals absolutely stunning. That’s not something you often get to say when it comes to documentaries.

So how did Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience come to be? We spoke to two producers on the film, Sarah Green and Nicolas Gonda, about what it’s like working with a great artist like Terrence Malick to create a one-of-a-kind movie that took 14 years to make.

Movies.com: Do you remember the first time you ever met Terrence Malick?

Sarah Green: Yes, it was a long time ago. My first contact with him was when I was driving in my car. The phone rang and a voice said, ‘Is this Sarah Green?’ and I said yes and they said, ‘Hi, it’s Terry Malick.’ and I said, ‘Terrence Malick? The filmmaker?’ I pulled over because otherwise I was going to crash. We talked for an hour or two. He had called me out of the blue because he was thinking of working in a different way and he needed someone to help him do that. A mutual friend and I had worked together a few years prior and he was the one who told him to call Sarah Green.

That first conversation was all about how to work in a way that would keep the creativity flowing. Movie making is an expensive business and people have to be responsible. Everything is scripted carefully and scheduled carefully and planned out in advance. And he wanted to be just as responsible as that, but leave room for magic and evolve and be discovered. I said, ‘Great! You’re Terrence Malick, I’ll help you make whatever movie you want!’

Nicolas Gonda: I met Terrence when I was in college working at a distributor, Focus Features. I learned there were some jobs they were filling on The New World, so my first job was actually as Terry’s driver. It was an amazing experience. I was able to start and end every day going to and from the cutting room, hearing how he thinks, what was on his mind, how he grapples with it. Even then I was learning the early stages of Voyage, because he’d share quotes and research materials.

Movies.com: How long has Voyage of Time been in his brain?

Gonda: We don’t know for sure, we can only imagine. Obviously nature is a theme in all of his movies and is very important to him, so it’s easy to imagine him as a child looking up at the night sky and wondering and having that curiosity lead to inquisition. And now he’s able to take a lifetime of curiosity and learning and put it into a movie. It started well before we knew him, but Sarah and I have been working on this movie for 14 years. And those were 14 very active years.

Green: It was a lot to research, a lot to consider and explore.

Movies.com: What was his research process like? Did he hire experts in certain fields?

Green: We’d start to discuss things and Terry would give us a list of scientists he wanted to have involved. We’d reach out to them and everyone, to a person, was excited to participate since it’s not often they get to collaborate with someone of Terry’s vision. And then we’d get them on the phone and realize Terry knew almost as much as them. He’d hold his own. He wasn’t asking questions, they’d get in to real specific stuff, pushing each other. This isn’t a guy with a casual interest. It’s a really deep, really informed interest.

Movies.com: For a lot of people Malick has taken on this nebulous, reclusive artist status. Is that very intentional on his part or is it just a side effect of how he works?

Gonda: We never speak for Terry, but one can imagine that given how devoted he is to his work, it takes a lot of time and if he’s able to focus on anything it’s building stories and working with teams. I think it’s a matter of humility. He let’s the film speak for itself and let other collaborators communicate things while he hangs back and works at the task at hand.

Movies.com: How close is the final film to your early talks with him? Is it exactly what you expected or does he catch you off guard?

Green: It’s quite extraordinary. When I see the first cut of the film and the last cut of the film, I see exactly the story we had talked about telling, but it can be either told in a completely different way or the exact way. That’s what’s so beautiful working together. The process of illustrating may adjust sometimes based on accidents, but the heart of the story – whatever basic ideas we’re communicating – are there from the very start. They are there step by step, laid out ahead of time. So it’s really fun and interesting to see it evolve into a more perfect example of that idea.

Movies.com: Is it difficult to get a distributor on board with that mentality?

Gonda: It starts with getting the right partnerships from the beginning. Obviously there’s two different films here. There’s Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience narrated by Brad Pitt, and Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey narrated by Cate Blanchett. Having IMAX on as a partner from years ago, we were able to build a plan with a shared understanding, and then it becomes a joy. It starts by understanding your goals, of where the film belongs in the world, and then it’s just a matter of finding partners who have those same interests.

Movies.com: The IMAX Experience is so incredible, and so incredibly complex from a technical side. How do you start to approach that, especially on a movie that started so long ago?

Green: Over the years that Nic and I have worked with Terry we’ve built a great team of people who work with Terry. So Dan Glass is always making sure we’re up on what’s possible in visual effects communities. Joel Dougherty has been our sound designer and mixer for some time now, and those conversations start very early. Terry will say how he wants something to feel, and Joel will know how to do it. Terry has an amazing mind for the technical as well as the creative. The process is fed by curious minds and supported by incredibly smart people.

Movies.com: Do you have a quintessential Malick moment? One moment that embodies him?

Green: Can I steal your quote, Nic?

Nic: Go ahead!

Green: One of the first things we talked about for this movie was a quote that he had in his mind from Albert Einstein. Here it is: ‘The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the most fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.’ Think about that informing your work!

Gonda: One of the great qualities of working with Terry is that there are many moments like that. His passion becomes contagious and it’s just a rare honor to be a part of it and know that it’s going to last the ages.

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Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience is in theaters now.

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