Terence Malik net worth
What is Terence Malik’s Net Worth?
Terrence Malick is an award-winning film director with a net worth of $15 million. Malik has a multi-decade career producing and directing a series of popular experimental films. Malik’s film career began in 1969 when he directed the rare comedy “Lanton Mills.” His first major project was the 1973 film Badlands, starring Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen. The film received rave reviews. His second film, Days in Heaven (1978), won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, while Malik won Best Director at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival.
In the two decades since “Days of Heaven”, Malik has achieved remarkable achievements: his film “The Thin Red Line” (1988) was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won a top prize at the 49th Berlinale Won the Golden Bear at the International Film Festival. Malik also directed the 2011 film The Tree of Life starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. The film, which debuted at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, won the Palme d’Or and was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. A renowned writer, Malik also wrote the screenplay for 1972’s “Pocket Money” starring Paul Newman, and wrote the first drafts of the classics “Big Fireball” and “Dirty Harry.”
early life
Malik was born on November 30, 1943 in Ottawa, Illinois. His mother is Erin Thompson and his father is Emile Malik, a geologist. He has two younger brothers, Chris and Larry. Larry is a very skilled guitarist who studied with Andrés Segovia in Spain, but then deliberately broke his own hands due to the pressure of his music studies. He died shortly after, and his death continued to be referenced in some of Malik’s future films.
Malik attended St. Stephen’s Anglican School in Austin, Texas.He then attended Harvard University with a BA in Philosophy, graduating with honors. He then entered Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar for a master’s degree, but left before he received his degree due to disagreements with his dissertation supervisor. He then returned to the United States and began teaching philosophy at MIT while also working as a freelance journalist.
(Photo by 20th Century Fox/Getty Images)
Profession
Malik received his MFA from the AFRI School of Music in 1969, which led him to start his film career. He first directed the short film “Lanton Mills,” and soon after began connecting with the likes of Jack Nicholson, Jack Fisk and Mike Medavoy. Medavoy is Malick’s proxy and will provide Malick with working edits and modification scripts in the early days. Malik wrote early unauthorized drafts of “Dirty Harry” and “Pocket Money.” Malik transitioned from writer to writer/director after one of his screenplays was made into the film “Deadhead Miles,” which Paramount Pictures deemed unrealistic. This prompted Malik to start directing his own script.
His first feature-length work as a director was the independent film Badlands. The film stars Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek and is influenced by the crimes of convicted teenage spree killer Charles Starkweather. Despite the film’s production troubles, it was such a hit that Warner Bros. bought distribution rights worth three times the film’s original budget.
Malik’s second film, “Days in Heaven,” depicts farmland in the Texas Panhandle in the early 20th century. The editing and post-production phases of the film were extensive and lasted two years. Upon its release, the film received mostly positive reviews and won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and Best Director at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. Since then, the film has been voted one of the 50 greatest American movies of all time in a 2015 BBC poll.
After “Day in Heaven”, Malik started developing a new project called “Q”. However, during pre-production, he moved to Paris and disappeared from the public eye for many years. He continued to write screenplays during this time, and while he never made “Q” into a film, the material did inspire later films like “The Tree of Life” and “Time Voyage.”
In 1997, Malik returned to directing and filmed the film The Thin Red Line. It’s loosely based on James Jones’ novel of the same name and features a cast of actors including Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson and George Clooney. The film received very positive reviews, winning seven Academy Awards and a Golden Bear at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival. It has since been named one of the best films of the 1990s by several media publications.
His next major project was “New World,” a romantic interpretation of the 2005 release of John Smith and Pocahontas’ story. His fifth feature film, The Tree of Life, was released at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. It won the Palme d’Or at the festival and was nominated for three awards at the 84th Academy Awards . The film was critically acclaimed and was named one of the best American films by the BBC.
Malik’s sixth film, “To Miracle” starring Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem and Olga Kurylenko, was released at the 69th Venice International in 2012 Premiere at the film festival. He then started working on two new projects, “Song to Song” and “Knight of the Holy Grail.” Both films had large casts and were released in 2016 and 2017. His next film, A Hidden Life, was released in 2019 and focuses on the life of Franz Jagerstadt, a conscientious objector during World War II.
As a filmmaker, Malik is known for frequently including philosophical themes in his work. His films are often spiritual and elicit polarizing views from criticism, especially when reference is made to some of his later work.
personal life
Malik has been known to protect his private life and has often declined interview requests. However, he was married to Jill Jacks from 1970 to 1976. He was then known to have had a relationship with director and screenwriter Michie Gleason in the late 1970s. After meeting Michele Marie Moret in Paris in 1980, he began a relationship with her. The two married in France in 1985. In 1996, he asked for a divorce, and the couple parted ways after eleven years of marriage. He later married his high school sweetheart, Alexandra Wallace. Malik has a residence in Austin, Texas.
