Hes tackled washed-up pro wrestlers, mentally unstable ballerinas, paranoid mathematicians, time-traveling surgeons and hopeless junkies, but director Darren Aronofskys biggest challenge to date is a man and his boat.
How the Academy Snubbed Springsteen for The Wrestler
Due in theaters on March 28th, Noah is the highest-profile effort yet from the man behind Black Swan, Pi and Requiem for a Dream and given the source material, thats to be expected. With a cast that boasts Russell Crowe in the title role and a family that includes Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson and Anthony Hopkins, Noah marks the return of the Biblical blockbuster.
Why Black Swan Is One of the 10 Best Movies of 2010
Or does it? For one thing, its designed to resemble a timeless, creature-filled fantasy world rather than the historical setting where the story of Noah, his ark and the flood God sent to cleanse the world of its sins took root less Middle East, more Middle-earth. And for all the epic imagery and special effects, the emphasis seems squarely on Aronofskys specialty, chronicling a talented, tormented individual struggling to stay afloat; this time around that struggle just so happens to be literal. For Gods sake, the movies theme song is provided by frequent Aronofsky collaborator Clint Mansell, avant-garde classical combo the Kronos Quartet and the high priestess of punk, Patti Smith as seen in Rolling Stones exclusive photo below. To hear Aronofsky tell it, neither big budgets nor potential controversy forced him to water his vision of the Flood down.
Patti Smith and More of the 100 Greatest Singers
Youve dealt with the big questions of life and faith before, going all the way back to Pi, but never on such a large scale. There must be frustrations and complications, but are there also advantages to working big?
When you do the story of Noah, you definitely need a big canvas. Its one of the greatest stories ever told, and its one people that have been telling around the entire world since before recorded history. But when we first started working on the project, we were very clear not to have sandals and robes and long white beards. The first thing I said to Russell Crowe was, Ill never shoot you on a houseboat with two giraffes standing behind you. I think the Noah story has become a story for children, but its actually the first apocalypse story. Its a very, very dark story. And it takes place at a time before the world had rainbows! A time when everything was miraculous. That allowed us to imagine big.
For me, the pre-diluvian world has many fantastical elements. The Bible talks about these creatures called the nephilim, which were these giant angels that walked on the Earth during the time of Noahs life. It also talked about this giant beast, the Leviathan, that lived on Earth. And were only ten generations from the Garden of Eden. It was a very magical, spiritual world as different as, say, Middle-earth. We created this Biblical fantasy world and we wanted to make it like no world wed seen before. The scope of the effects, in bringing this world to life, required that we work on a big scale.
How did Patti Smith get involved?
Ive been friends with Patti for a long time, and I needed a lullaby for the movie because its a big part of the story. I was telling Patti about my struggles, and it turns out shes studied lullabies and writes a lot of them. She was like, Can I please write it for you? And I said, Youre asking me that question? [Laughs] I said absolutely with as much of a poker face as possible. She wrote this incredible lullaby that Russell Crowe sings to Emma Watson in the movie. Its really touching and beautiful.
Do you worry about the pushback this approach might get from people with a great deal of spiritual and emotional investment in the Bible?
The hope is that the film is for everyone. The film completely accepts the text, the four chapters in Genesis, as truth just like if I was to adapt any book, Id try to be as truthful to the original material as possible. Its just that theres only four chapters, and we had to turn it into a two-hour long narrative film. In the Bible, Noah doesnt even speak. So of course weve got to dramatize the story.
We tried to remain truthful to the themes and the ideas that are written, but to create a dramatic story for a 21st-century audience. I think people who are believers will see the ideas and the values that theyre looking for represented in the film, and I think people who are non-believers, or come from different traditions, are going to be excited because its not your grandmothers bible. Its something new, something big and something different.
The question of how suffering can exist in a universe created by an omnipotent and benevolent God is a tough one to grapple with. In a story like Noahs, where youre dealing with the wrath of God himself, you have to face it head-on.
That was a big part of it. As I said, most people think that its a childrens story, but if you really look at it. . . you know, its the fourth story in the Bible, the first story being Creation, the second story being Adam and Eves fall from the Garden and original sin and the third story being the first murder. Then it jumps forward ten generations and the entire world is wicked and the Creator is so upset with Man that he just wants to destroy it and start all over again. Everything is perfect and Creation is great, then one thing goes wrong and pretty quickly its all fallen apart and youre willing to destroy everything to start again. Thats a pretty dramatic place.
How does this affect the character of Noah himself? If everythings going to be wiped clean, he has to wonder why hes been picked to survive.
Thats the theme of what we were doing. I dont wanna get too specific, because I dont wanna give too much away, but your fingers on the pulse.