Darren Aronofsky Wants ‘Noah’ To Be A Big Event Film
The precise choice forDarren Aronofsky’s follow-up to the award-winning audience favoriteBlack Swanhas been a bit question mark over the past six months, and especially since the directorwalked awayfrom Fox’sThe Wolverine. (Which is nowlookingto James Mangold to direct.)
We know that he’llhelm the pilot episodeof HBO’s very intriguing-sounding showHobgoblin, which Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman are writing and producing. But he’s also beenshoppingNoah, the $150m take on the biblical tale of Noah and the Ark that has been percolating in his mind for many years. New Regengy is on board to pay for half of the project, but a studio is needed for the balance. No one has stepped up yet, but that hasn’t stopped people from asking Darren Aronofsky about the project. His latest statements, which reveal that he wants to play down the religious aspect of the story and heighten the tentpole potential inherent in it, are below.
At the Provincetown Film Festival, Darren Aronofsky toldIFC,
I don’t think it’s a very religious story… I think it’s a great fable that’s part of so many different religions and spiritual practices. I just think it’s a great story that’s never been on film.
That’s Useful Quote Number One. The second in that series is this: “I want to make a big event film, and I think it can be that.”
The latter aspect is something that, I think, has been relatively evident for at least a while. It’s a $150m film, and you don’t get to make that movie without crafting it as an event. Granted, this version of the ‘event movie’ may not be quite the broad family-friendly version that we often see, given that Mr. Aronofsky has said that the stories that inform Noah “are not PG in any way,” and talked about the character in these terms:
He’s a dark, complicated character. The tragedies we perform on each other are so well reported. Quite clearly, the planet is dying, and we are dying on it.
John Logan is rewriting the script, and we’ll be interested to see what changes are made to get the movie rolling, if any.
The final question is whetherChristian Baleis reallythe object of his desirefor a leading man. The director evaded that question with “no comment,” though IFC’s report describes the delivery as being accompanied by a grin, suggesting that there is more truth than not to that rumor.
