After the success of Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, FilmNation has entered an agreement with him to handle distribution and international sales of his next three films. Plot details on all three are nonexistent, but Malick and FilmNation have our attention from the cast listings alone.

The first one, Lawless, stars Ryan Gosling (Drive), Christian Bale (The Dark Knight), and Cate Blanchett (Lord of the Rings trilogy). The second, Knight of Cups, will also star Bale and Blanchett along with Isabel Lucas (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen). Sarah Green and Nicolas Gonda (both of The Tree of Life) will produce both films.

The third film is yet untitled, but it has an all-star cast including Ben Affleck (The Town), Rachel Weisz (Agora), Javier Bardem (Biutiful), and Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes).

While The Tree of Life confused a lot of people, it also resonated with many as a true art film. Malick has been making films for almost 40 years (38, exactly), but really won audiences in 1998 with The Thin Red Line. Since then, his slow, steady, and beautiful style has been a staple of modern cinema and inspired many to take it easy with the plot, to let it flow. His next three films will probably be no exception to this rule. More as this develops.