Ledger & Penn are sitting in a ‘Tree’

What a great month its been for Malick fans – first the Criterion Co. release of the Malick-approved Days of Heaven and now a bit of casting announcements on a project that has been in gestation for a very long time – almost three decades!

Until recently was supposed to be shot in India with some production from there and with a possible Mel Gibson and Collin Farrell sighting, but The Hollywood Reporter reports that Heath Ledger and Sean Penn are in talks to star in Tree of Life – a complex drama sees Ledger in the lead opposite an a female character with Sean Penn in a supporting role. Penn stared in Malick's The Thin Red Line and helped the filmmaker edit the film.

Malick can be thankful to River Road Entertainment's Bill Pohlad and Sarah Green who'll back this project. Shooting begins in the month of March.