10 Bizarre Filmmaker Rules You Never Knew

4. Terrence Malick Has A Contractual Stipulation That He Can't Be Photographed

Dunkirk Christopher Nolan
Broad Green Pictures

Terrence Malick is one of the most enigmatic filmmakers in the history of Hollywood, a famously reclusive director who not only avoids press interviews and awards shows, but spent an entire 20 years away from the industry between 1978's Days of Heaven and 1998's The Thin Red Line.

There are also curiously few pictures of Malick available online, a result of him literally having it written into his directing contracts that on-set photos of him cannot be published anywhere.

Only in recent years with the advent of smartphones have set spies managed to snap pictures of Malick at work, and it wasn't until 2017 that a recording of the director's voice even made its way online (save for a quick vocal cameo he made in his directorial debut Badlands).

It's this fiercely protective approach to his own privacy which has helped Malick cultivate such a fascinating aura of mystery over the last five decades.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.