Sean Penn Was Confused by 'The Tree of Life' Too

Plus: Pixar's two new projects involve dinosaurs and the human mind

Today, in the film set: Sean Penn admits to having a few issues with The Tree of Life, Pixar announces two new projects, and Jimmy Fallon will be hosting Saturday Night Live in December.

• You can add Sean Penn to the list of those unimpressed--or maybe just those befuddled--by director Terrence Malick's sweeping, dinosaur-populated Palme d'Or winner The Tree of Life. In an interview with the French paper Le Figaro (translated by The New Yorker), Penn says, "I didn’t at all find on the screen the emotion of the script, which is the most magnificent one that I’ve ever read." The actor suggests a "clearer and more conventional narrative would have helped the film without, in my opinion, lessening its beauty and its impact." Penn, who worked with Malick on The Thin Red Line in 1999, and spent The Tree of Life reflecting back on his West Texas childhood by staring out of windows, goes on: "Frankly, I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing there and what I was supposed to add in that context! What’s more, Terry himself never managed to explain it to me clearly." [Le Figaro via The New Yorker via Vulture]
• Pixar announced two new original projects at Disney's D23 confab in Anaheim this weekend.The first, dubbed Untitled Pixar Movie About Dinosaurs for now, is slated for a Christmas 2013 release, with Finding Nemo and Up screenwriter Bob Peterson directing. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film is "set in a world where an asteroid didn't hit the Earth, thus allowing the creatures to keep living and evolving." Attendees were shown a piece of concept art for the film featuring "a small humanoid silhouette on top of the head of a brachiosaurus." The second project, Untitled Pixar Movie That You See Inside the Brain, is being lead by Up director Pete Docter and is aiming for a summer 2014 release. That's good news for anyone who thinks the animation company's non-Toy Story sequels, like this summer's Cars 2 and 2013's Monsters University, a sequel to Monsters Inc., are slightly less magical than the studio's original films. [Arts Beat and The Hollywood Reporter]
• Also at D23, Disney's film division head Rich Ross told Deadline's Pete Hammond that he isn't giving up hope on resurrecting the film version of The Lone Ranger, weeks after the studio shut down production on the film because of budget concerns. “I’m hoping to do it. I’m certainly hoping," said Ross. "I think it’s a compelling story and no one wants to work with [Producer] Jerry [Bruckheimer] and [star] Johnny [Depp] more than me so we’ll see how it works.” Not mentioned by Ross: slated Lone Ranger director Gore Verbinski. [Deadline]
• Miramax is launching what Paid Content is calling "the largest-scale Facebook streaming movie venture" to date through a new app called the Miramax eXperience. The application will allow users to rent films from the Miramax library for a month for "30 Facebook credits, the equivalent of $3." The service goes live today with "20 titles for rent in the U.S. and 10 each in UK and Turkey." The U.S. film library includes Pulp Fiction, No Country for Old Men, and Good Will Hunting. [Paid Content]
• Jimmy Fallon will return to his old stomping grounds and host Saturday Night Live on December 17. Knowing Fallon, he's likely to have some fun at the expense of evening's musical performer, Michael Buble. [The Wrap]