Brad Pitt has joined acclaimed German filmmaker Wim Wenders’ upcoming documentary on Swiss architect Peter Zumthor as an executive producer, bringing his long-standing interest in architecture to the project.
Titled From Inside Out: The Architecture of Peter Zumthor, the documentary has been filmed by Wenders over 14 years and traces the career of the Pritzker Prize-winning architect. The film will have its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival next month.
Pitt’s personal connection
Pitt’s involvement is particularly significant because of his previous support for Zumthor’s work. The actor was a prominent advocate for the architect’s design for the new Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) building and spoke in favour of the project at an important Los Angeles County hearing in 2019.
His intervention was considered influential in helping the controversial museum project move forward. The documentary will open with a “Brad Pitt presents” credit, reflecting the actor’s personal backing for the film and his admiration for both Zumthor and Wenders. However, Pitt does not have a financial interest in the documentary, and his production company Plan B Entertainment was not involved in making it.
Fourteen years behind camera
Wenders’ documentary follows Zumthor from some of his earliest family homes in the Alps through to major projects that established him as one of contemporary architecture’s most influential figures.
Among the buildings featured are the Therme Vals spa in Switzerland, the Kolumba Museum in Cologne and the Steilneset Memorial in Norway. The documentary also examines Zumthor’s unsuccessful effort to design Berlin’s Topography of Terror museum, which was abandoned following years of development and escalating costs.
The film culminates with Zumthor’s new LACMA building, completed this year, providing a natural endpoint to Wenders’ long-running examination of the architect and his approach to space.
Architecture through 3D
From Inside Out has been shot in 3D, continuing Wenders’ experiments with the format as a way of bringing audiences closer to art and physical spaces.
The filmmaker previously employed 3D in Anselm, his 2023 documentary about German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer. For the Zumthor film, the format is intended to give viewers a more immersive experience of the architect’s buildings and their relationship with their surroundings.
The documentary is produced by Wenders’ Road Movies and DCM, with HanWay handling international sales.
Pitt’s involvement adds considerable star power to a project already bringing together two major figures from architecture and cinema. It also reflects an interest the actor has displayed in architecture beyond his film career, making his participation in Wenders’ long-gestating portrait of Zumthor a particularly fitting collaboration.