To the Wonder - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of To the Wonder or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to To the Wonder

[norma]

Christian Bale was cast, but dropped out. Ben Affleck replaced him.

[javier]

The film title appears to be a nod to Mont Saint-Michel-a monastery in Normandy, France which has been called "The Wonder of the West".

[christina]

During post-production, director Terrence Malick handed out works of literature to his editing team for inspiration, including Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" and Walter Percy's "The Moviegoer". Also referenced was a phrase found in Margaret A. Doody's introduction to Samuel Richardson's novel "Pamela". The phrase "radiant zigzag becoming" became an unofficial motto of the editing team during post-production.

[javier]

This is Terrence Malick's first picture set entirely in the modern day.

[veronica]

Before the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, Rachel Weisz said in an interview "It seems that my part has been cut. I had the experience of working with him (Malick), but I will not have the pleasure of seeing my work."

[stephanie]

Rachel Weisz, Jessica Chastain (playing an ex-girlfriend of Ben Affleck's character), Michael Sheen, Amanda Peet, Barry Pepper, and Michael Shannon had supporting roles in the film which ended up being cut. Chastain was actually just visiting the set to see old friends from The tree of life (2011) crew and Terrence Mallick was so happy to have her there, that he wrote the part, and shot two days with her and Affleck.

[caroline]

Annie Clark, who performs under the name St. Vincent, and whose song "Now Now" is in the movie, once remarked that her second album, "Actor", was inspired by Badlands (1973).

[jamie]

Olga Kurylenko, familiar with Terrence Malick's tendency to cut entire characters out of his movies completely, made him promise that he would keep her in the film.

[riley]

Many of Malick's longtime collaborators returned for To the Wonder, including Jack Fisk (Production Designer), Emmanuel Lubezki (Cinematographer), Sarah Green (Producer), Jacqueline West (Costume Designer), and David Crank (Art Director).

[ethel]

Olga Kurylenko stated in an interview that Terrence Malick spoke to her exclusively in French throughout shooting.

[addison]

A few months after shooting officially finished, Javier Bardem was contacted by Terrence Malick to record more voice-over, in Spanish, for which the actor worked with some Spanish recording company.

[stephanie]

"I sometimes wondered if my character was really there. Some days you could spiral off that way because even the shooting was so freeform. Maybe I'm just something Ben's character imagined." - Rachel McAdams on her character in To The Wonder

[amber]

It's Malick's first film to be rated R since The Thin Red Line (1998), "for some sexuality/nudity."

[sara]

According to Olga Kurylenko, her character was originally much more dark and unstable. Kurylenko claimed to have shot scenes where Marina was really depressed and had huge fights with Ben Affleck, showing how moody she was.

[frederick]

Italian censorship visa # 107490 delivered on 25-6-2013.

[riley]

It is Terrence Malick's first film under two hours in length since Days of Heaven (1978).

[chris]

Roger Ebert's review of this film was the last review he submitted before his death. It was published posthumously.

[darrell]

The title given to the film when it was released in France, "À la merveille", has a double meaning: as well as being the French equivalent of the expression "to the wonder", it also alludes to a specific part of the architecture of Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey. "La Merveille" is the traditional name given the two elevated buildings which include the cloisters visited by Neil and Marina in the film.

[ronnie]

Ben Affleck recorded the director's commentary track for the DVD/BluRay release of The Town (2010) while on location in Tulsa, OK.