Darren Aronofsky has been talking about “Noah,” his planned big-budget version of the classical Biblical tale of the man chosen to carry on life after God wipes the slate clean, for years now, but for a long time it seemed like an far-off dream project; he’d never had a major box office hit, and no one seemed likely to put down a few $100 million for something not involving superheroes. But the success of “Black Swan,” which made back twenty times its budget, has changed things, and the film now has a home thanks to Paramount and New Regency, and a shoot planned for next spring.
But even so, Aronofsky wanted to double up his chances and, as he did with “The Fountain” after the Brad Pitt/Cate Blanchett iteration of the film fell apart, the director, and producer Ari Handel, penned a graphic novel version of his script, teaming with Canadian artist Nico Henrichon to produce a glimpse of what we should be seeing in theaters in a year or two. The book has now hit stores in Europe, and /Film have a peek at some images from the it, as well as a longer version of the trailer that appeared a little while ago.
It displays a pretty massive scope, which may or may not end up making it to the screen — on the page, the only limitation is Aronfosky’s imagination, obviously, but with a reported $130 million budget to play with, there’s plenty for him to play with on screen. The big question at this point is still whether Christian Bale will end up playing the title role. He was said to be circling the part back in the summer, but he’s got a number of others trying to get his attention too, including the villainous role opposite Josh Brolin in Spike Lee‘s “Oldboy,” and Michael Mann‘s “Gold.” Watch below for a taste of what he might be getting up to, should he sign on.
It was a world without hope, a world with no rain and no crops, dominated by warlords and their barbarian hordes. In this cruel world, Noah was a good man. Seasoned fighter, mage and healer but he only wanted peace for him and his family. Yet every night, Noah was beset by visions of an endless flood, symbolizing the destruction of all life. Gradually he began to understand the message sent him by the Creator. He had decided to punish the men and kill them until the last. But he gave Noah a last chance to preserve life on Earth …
