Editing The Thin Red Line (1998 film) (section)

===Casting===

Casting for the film became a hot topic. When [[Sean Penn]] met Malick, he told him, "Give me a dollar and tell me where to show up."<ref name="Young"/> Scripts were also sent to [[Robert De Niro]], [[Robert Duvall]] and [[Tom Cruise]]. In 1995, once word went out that Malick was making another movie after many years, numerous actors approached him, flooding the casting directors until they had to announce they wouldn't be accepting more requests. Some A-list actors including [[Brad Pitt]], [[Al Pacino]], [[Gary Oldman]], and [[George Clooney]] offered to work for a fraction and some even offered to work for free. [[Bruce Willis]] even went as far as offering to pay for first-class tickets for the casting crew, to get a few lines for the movie. At Medavoy's home in 1995, Malick staged a reading with [[Martin Sheen]] delivering the screen directions, and [[Kevin Costner]], [[Will Patton]], [[Peter Berg]], [[Lukas Haas]], and [[Dermot Mulroney]] playing the main roles.<ref name="Biskind"/> In June of that year, a five-day workshop was scheduled at Medavoy's with Pitt dropping by, and culminating with Malick putting on the soundtrack of ''[[Where Eagles Dare]]'' and playing Japanese taiko drums. Malick met with an interested [[Johnny Depp]] about the project at the Book Soup Bistro on the [[Sunset Strip]].<ref name="Biskind"/>

[[Edward Norton]] flew out to Austin and met Malick, who had been impressed by the actor's screen test for ''[[Primal Fear (film)|Primal Fear]]''. [[Matthew McConaughey]] reportedly took a day off filming ''[[A Time to Kill (1996 film)|A Time to Kill]]'' to see Malick. Others followed, including [[William Baldwin]], [[Edward Burns]], [[Josh Hartnett]], [[Crispin Glover]], [[Philip Seymour Hoffman]], [[Stephen Dorff]], and [[Leonardo DiCaprio]]; the last of these flew up from the Mexico set of ''[[William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet|Romeo + Juliet]]'' to meet Malick at the [[American Airlines]] lounge in the Austin airport.<ref name="Abramowitz"/> Before the casting was finalized, [[Nicolas Cage]] had lunch with Malick in Hollywood in February 1996. Malick went off to scout locations and tried calling Cage that summer only to find out that his phone number had been disconnected. [[Tom Sizemore]], however, was offered a more substantial role in ''[[Saving Private Ryan]]'' and, when he could not contact Malick for several days, decided to do [[Steven Spielberg]]'s film instead.<ref name="Abramowitz"/> Actors [[Bill Pullman]], [[Mickey Rourke]], and Lukas Haas filmed scenes for the movie but were cut from the final film due to time constraints.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2010/09/thin-red-line-dvd-first-look-at-mickey.html | title=The Thin Red Line DVD: First Look at Mickey Rourke & 8 Other Outtakes from Terrence Malick's War Film | access-date=May 22, 2011 | archive-date=August 17, 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817032355/http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2010/09/thin-red-line-dvd-first-look-at-mickey.html | url-status=live }}</ref> Publicity stills of Pullman (as Sgt. MacTae, in a scene opposite Brody and Chaplin) can be seen online, Haas is pictured in the booklet of the CD soundtrack, and one of Rourke's scenes was restored for the Criterion Blu-Ray/DVD release of the film. Malick wrote a part specifically for Oldman, but the character was eventually scrapped before production began due to too many characters being in the film. He was later thanked in the credits along with Lukas, [[Viggo Mortensen]], Sheen, Rourke, Pullman and [[Jason Patric]].

[[James Caviezel]], who was cast as Private Witt, credits Malick's casting of him as the turning point in his career.<ref>{{cite news
 | last=Atkinson | first=Michael | title=James Caviezel: why Hollywood learned to pronounce his name in a hurry | work=[[Interview (magazine)|Interview]] | date=November 2001 | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_11_31/ai_94690066 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060613195034/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_11_31/ai_94690066 | url-status=dead | archive-date=2006-06-13 | access-date= 2007-05-11}}</ref>