The New World is an epic adventure set during the time of the first encounter of European and Native American cultures during the founding of the Jamestown settlement in 1607. Inspired by the legend of John Smith and Pocahontas, filmmaker Terrence Malick transforms this classic story into an exploration of love, loss and discovery.
Against the historically rich backdrop of the early Americans, inhabited by a great native civilization, Malick (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line) has set a dramatized tale of two determined characters, a passionate and noble young native American woman and an ambitious soldier of fortune who find themselves torn between the undeniable requirements of civic duty and the inescapable demands of the heart.
The New World gives an insight into the early years of the 17th century when North America is much as it has been for the previous five thousand years - a vast land of seemingly endless primeval wilderness populated by an intricate network of tribal cultures. Although these nations live in graceful harmony with their environment, their relations with each other are a bit more uneasy. All it will take to upset the balance is an intrusion from the outside. And that is exactly what is coming.
On a spring day in April of 1607, three ships bearing 103 men sail into this world from the island kingdom of England, three thousand miles to the east across a vast ocean. On behalf of their sponsor, the royally chartered Virginia Company, they are traveling to the new world in a quest to establish a cultural, religious, and economic foothold on the coast.
Shackled below the decks of the lead ship, the Susan Constant, is a rebellious 27-year-old named John Smith (Colin Farrell), sentenced to be hanged for insubordination as soon as the ship reaches land.
Smith is a veteran of countless European wars is too talented and popular to be hung by his own people, and so he is freed by Captain Christopher Newport (Christopher Plummer) soon after the Susan Constant drops anchor in the new world. As Captain Newport knows—and the colonists will soon discover—surviving in this unknown wilderness will require the services of every able-bodied man, this is why he agrees to allow Smith, a man of with these abilities, his freedom.
Though they don’t realize it at the time, Newport and his band of British settlers have landed in the midst of a sophisticated Native American empire ruled by the powerful chieftain Powhatan (August Schellenberg). To the colonists, it may be a new world. But to Powhatan and his people, it is an ancient world that they have known for years.
Because the English are strangers in a strange land, they continually struggle when trying to fend for themselves in this new land. Smith, searching for assistance from the local tribesmen, chances upon a young woman who at first seems to be more woodland sprite than human being. A willful and impetuous young woman whose family and friends affectionately call her “Pocahontas” - or “playful one” - she is the favorite of Powhatan’s children. Before long a bond develops between Smith and Pocahontas (Q’Orianka Kilcher), a bond so powerful that it transcends friendship or even romance - and eventually becomes the basis of one of the American legend.
For The New World, Terrence Malick has assembled a distinguished cast led by Colin Farrell as John Smith. In addition, The New World introduces newcomer Q’orianka Kilcher, and also includes Christopher Plummer (National Treasure, A Beautiful Mind, The Insider), Christian Bale (Batman Begins, American Psycho, Empire of the Sun), August Schellenberg (Iron Will, Free Willy), Wes Studi (Dances With Wolves, The Last of the Mohicans), David Thewlis (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Seven Years in Tibet), and Yorick van Wageningen (The Chronicles of Riddick, Beyond Borders) among others.
Behind the camera, Malick has recruited director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki (Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Sleepy Hollow), production designer Jack Fisk (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, Mulholland Drive), costume designer Jacqueline West (Quills, Rising Sun), film editors Richard Chew (Star Wars, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), Hank Corwin (Natural Born Killers, Nixon) and Saar Klein (The Thin Red Line, Almost Famous) and composer James Horner (Titanic, House of Sand and Fog, A Beautiful Mind). The film is produced by Sarah Green (Frida, Girlfight), and executive produced by William M. Mechanic (Dark Water), New Line Cinema’s Toby Emmerich, Rolf Mittweg and Mark Ordesky, and Trish Hofmann (Three Seasons).
