The New World

The New World (2005)

Timing: 2:31 (151 min)

6.5/10
1104

6.786/10
15169

6.7/10
93000

All about film

Video 2

Photo 37

Actors and characters

Release date

2005-12-25

Country

United States

Production

New Line Cinema, First Foot Films, Sunflower Productions, Sarah Green Film, The Virginia Company LLC

Genre

Drama, History, Romance

Budget

$30 000 000

Revenue

$30 508 524

Website

Director

Terrence Malick

Actors

Colin Farrell, Q'orianka Kilcher, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale, August Schellenberg, Wes Studi, David Thewlis, Yorick van Wageningen, Raoul Max Trujillo, Michael Greyeyes
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Sarah Green, Mark Ordesky, Toby Emmerich, Trish Hofmann, Bill Mechanic, Rolf Mittweg

Operator

Emmanuel Lubezki

Composer

James Horner

Artist

Jonathan Short

Audition

Francine Maisler, Kathy Driscoll-Mohler

Editing

Hank Corwin, Richard Chew, Saar Klein
All team (165)

• The film was shot almost entirely using exclusively natural lighting. Artificial light was only used in scenes inside Hampton Court Palace, shining through the windows.
• To enhance the lighting in some interior scenes, special candles with four wicks each were lit.
• The Native Americans involved in the filming had to learn the Algonquian language, spoken by the Native Americans who encountered the first settlers. Today, around 3000 people speak this language, many of whom were hired by the producers to teach it to the actors.
• The fort of the first settlers in Virginia was recreated for the film in 30 days, exactly how long it took to build the original structure, but then it was done without cranes or other modern equipment.
• The most challenging task turned out to be casting an actress for the role of Pocahontas. Producers reviewed over 2,000 girls on location before deciding to expand their search to all suitable-aged actresses of Native American descent throughout both North and South America.
• Pocahontas's clothing during the reception with the Queen is based on one of the few surviving portraits of her from that period.
• Throughout the entire film, Pocahontas is never addressed by that name, and none of the other Native American characters are addressed by name, nor are their names ever mentioned.
• To better prepare for his role, Colin Farrell read all seven books that John Smith published in England upon his return from the New World.
• All the actors were required to lose 9 kilograms and undergo training in a boot camp where they were taught how to handle artillery and live as the first settlers.
• Terrence Malick wrote the screenplay back in the late 70s, and it remained untouched until 2004.
• The average shot length is 6.7 seconds.
• A significant portion of the dialogue was dubbed during post-production. This was necessary because during many takes, the voice of director Terrence Malick was clearly audible in the background.
• The original version of the film was 150 minutes long and had a limited release in December 2005. A few days later, director Terrence Malick decided to recall all copies and re-edited the film, resulting in the final, 135-minute version. The initial cut was never released on DVD in the US and is only available on a two-disc edition released in Italy.
• Irene Bedard (Pocahontas's mother) and Christian Bale (John Rolfe) previously participated in the voice acting for the Disney animated film 'Pocahontas' (1995). Christian Bale voiced Thomas, and Irene Bedard voiced the main character, Pocahontas.
• Director Terrence Malick strived to make the film as authentic and historically accurate as possible. To achieve this, filming took place very close to the actual location of events, and the reconstruction of the English settlement and the Native American village was based on archaeological data and primarily used the same materials and tools as those from the 17th century. To plant in their vicinity, the filmmakers sourced seeds of Native American corn and tobacco, which differed somewhat from those common today.
• “The New World” is the first film in nine years to be shot entirely or partially on 65mm film. The last such project was the film “Hamlet” (1996) by British director Kenneth Branagh.
• From the very beginning, the filmmakers set out to avoid computer special effects and largely succeeded in this task. In one scene, the color of a pair of parrots was slightly altered using computer graphics, and in another, the same was done with a flock of pigeons to achieve the greatest possible resemblance to the extinct Carolina parakeets (the last wild individual was killed in 1904).
• Filming period: July 26 – November 6, 2004.