IMAX and indie distributor Broad Green Pictures have joined Sophisticated Films and Wild Bunch to complete financing of Voyage Of Time, the Terrence Malick big scale film. Broad Green has the option to distribute the film after it makes an IMAX debut. Pic was sold at Cannes with GAGA, Lumiere Mars and Edko among those to sign on to release in their home territories. Brad Pitt and Bill Pohlad–Malick’s co-conspirators on the Oscar nominated Tree Of Life–are among a long line of producers. Per the filmmakers, the pic is a celebration of the universe, displaying the whole of time, from its start to its final collapse. This film examines all that occurred to prepare the world that stands before us now: science and spirit, birth and death, the grand cosmos and the minute life systems of our planet. Malick is working first in the IMAX format for a 40-minute version with scientific narration by Pitt, followed by a 35mm feature-length version with narration by Cate Blanchett.

Voyage Of Time becomes the first recipient of an Original Film Fund worth $50 million that IMAX announced last May to cofi 10 films. IMAX has proven to be a go-to venue for films that distribute in outside the box ways; it also pledged to show the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon spinoff that has a Netflix deal and is generally barred by the major theater chains. IMAX senior exec veep Greg Foster said Malick has been working on this film 30 years and that “to be able to launch our Film Fund portfolio with Malick and his imaginative style of film making is capturing lightning in a bottle. We look forward to working with Terry and his producing partners on this groundbreaking film.”

Said Broad Green Pictures principals Gabriel and Daniel Hammond: “Terrence Malick is an innovator of epic scope. We have long admired his work and could not be more excited to partner with him on this project.”

Terrence Malick’s latest film “Knight of Cups,” an experimental drama about a Hollywood screenwriter’s (Christian Bale) existential crisis through a world of delirious excess, had its theatrical release this past March. The film continues Malick’s recent creative resurgence; his last two features, “The Tree of Life” and “To The Wonder,” were released this decade after a pattern of long periods of silence between films. Now, his next film will hit theaters this fall, only it will be released in IMAX instead.

“Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience” tells the grand history of the cosmos, taking the audience on a personal journey through the universe itself, from the Big Bang to the Mesozoic Era to our present and beyond. Nearly four decades in the making, “Voyage of Time” will feature a panorama of powerful images will allow viewers to bear witness to some of the most important events of all time — the birth of the stars, the initial development of human life, and much, much more. The film is Malick’s first foray into documentary filmmaking and represents a unique cosmic experience that draws from many elements of Malick’s long, celebrated career.

The film will be released in two formats. “Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience” is a 40-minute big screen adventure narrated by Brad Pitt and will be released exclusively in IMAX theaters on October 7th. Another version of the film “Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey,” a 90-minute cut narrated by Cate Blanchett, will take audiences on a poetic journey through a world of open questions; no release date has yet been set for that film. See an exclusive poster for the film below.