During a conversation at South by Southwest in March, Bob Berney mentioned that he was working on plans to get back into the film distribution business. Warner Bros. had recently closed Picturehouse, the specialty division that he ran, and so the executive responsible for everything from My Big Fat Greek Wedding to The Passion of the Christ was a free agent.

(To bring everyone up to speed, Berney cut his teeth in the film business by building the Inwood Theatre in 1984 and running it until 1989.)

Today comes news that Berney is forming the company he hinted at in March. He’ll team with producer Bob Pohlad to form Apparition, which sounds like it will be in the mold of some of the specialty divisions of major studios. The first film it will release is Austin filmmaker Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, which filmed some scenes in Dallas. The film stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn. Look for it to be released sometime next year.