Oscar-nominated writer-director Terrence Malick has, until now, been known for the extended time periods that lapse between his film projects. Since his first feature back in 1973, he has a further four films under his director’s credits, with the most recent being the summer’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winning The Tree of Life.

More recently, however, he’s become something of a prolific filmmaker, turning his attentions to not one, not two, not three, but four projects, seemingly animated by a new sense of energy.

Along with those four upcoming projects – the first, a documentary, Voyage of Time; the second, the as-yet-untitled romance drama led by Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams; the third, Lawless, led by Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, and Haley Bennett; and the fourth, Knight of Cups, led by Bale, Blanchett, and Isabel Lucas – The Playlist are now reporting that Malick is returning to his first and most recent films as well, to bring us new editions of them both.

His first film, Badlands, led by Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, is soon set to be re-released, with only a basic edition currently existing, lacking much in the way of special features. Billy Weber, who’s edited on most of Malick’s films and served as associate editor on Badlands, has said,

“Warner Bros. or Criterion is putting out a new version of ‘Badlands’ fairly soon.”

He’s also said that he’s done an audio commentary for the film, but doesn’t know if it’s going to be used. With The Criterion Collection having already released new editions of Malick’s Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, it’s thought that they’ll be the ones putting the new edition of Badlands out.

As for his most recent film, this summer’s brilliant The Tree of Life, it sounds like we may still have a bit of time to wait, with Malick wanting to put together an extended version of the film for release. The theatrical cut we saw was pretty hefty in itself, running for 139 minutes, but with over six hours of footage initially shot, and much of the further exploration of Jack’s childhood cut from the version we saw, we could well be in for a real treat when it does come.

Of the extended cut, Weber said,

“I know Terry is doing a longer cut of ‘Tree,’ but we had so many scenes that were cut out that it wouldn’t be that hard to put together a longer version. Other than that, I really don’t know what he is going to put back in, but I’m sure that it will be interesting.”

So though release dates for these two projects are still on the horizon without any real idea of when they might be heading our way, the news is still excellent. I loved The Tree of Life when I saw it in the cinema, and am definitely looking forward to seeing more of the original cut whenever it comes out. In all likelihood, it’s going to make the film even more brilliant.