| Hey! Was that Brad Pitt? |
| Written by Steve Muccini | |
 A movie set at a motel Officially, mums the word, but if you were out in Smithville recently, it could have been him. In fact, you could have seen Sean Penn too. That is because the two-time Oscar nominated director, Terrence Malick, just shot his latest feature here called Tree of Life. Nearby production happened in Austin as well as Bastrop and Smithville (also the shot spot for Sandra Bullock in Hope Floats), so it is nice to claim this one as home grown...or at least home shot. Apparently Mr. Malick insisted on shooting here as it was his hometown growing up. He brought most of the cast in from other places, actually requiring Pitt and Penn to fund their own way and stay. Evidentally the Hyatt Lost Pines wasn't offering any deals, so Pitt and family opted for a nice rented estate for their shooting time in town.  Terrence Malick For Brad fans, here is just about everything we can tell you about this film... "Tree of Life is a period piece centered around three boys in the 1950s. The son of two characters (Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain) witnesses the loss of innocence."  Brad and Angelina's temporary digs in TX There are a lot of reasons for this which typically all lead back to business. Business and protection. The Writer's Guild of America allows writers to register a script they have written so that no one else can steal it and make the film themselves. But we are talking about a very large and very competitive business and every production company has access to their own writers. That means that just protecting the words you wrote is one thing, but protecting the story concept is something a little more complicated. (Spoiler alert!) A small boy sees dead people, and councils throughout the entire film with a confidant (Bruce Willis) who turns out to be dead too. Yikes, what a concept. If someone had chosen to build a story on the idea, wrote a script and produced a film before M. Night Shyamalan made The Sixth Sense in 1999, it certainly could have sucked the wind from the sails of that film, which was nominated for six Oscars. Of course, there are other small details such as the quality of the writer and director, the selection of cast, and lots and lots of cash to promote it, but you can see how much value is inhererent within a novel idea alone. Notice how many copycat films follow the success of a big Hollywood blockbuster too. Not to mention all of the historical documentaries which spring up on The History Channel, Discovery, or the Learning Channel. After Rome started running on HBO, the deluge of Rome related documentaries and docudramas was undeniable. People eat it up and the film companies know this. Even so many lousy sequel attempts to follow up a successful film seem to do well just on the marquee value alone. The bottom line is that if you want the inside scoop on the latest big film shooting in town, don't ask the people who have anything to do with it, because their lips are sealed.
Steve Muccini is president of SpotEdge Media, an award winning video production company producing content for TV and the web, and also HomeSaleVideo.com . He is also a writer, producer and actor in Austin, Texas.
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