Darren “villain mustache” Aronofsky was interviewed by Clothes On Film (we prefer Clothesless on Film) and revealed he’s making a comic book version of a script he’s having a hard time getting a studio to make, which is also why The Fountain was a comic before a movie was finally made. Is it cynical for such a successful director to convert his script into a picture book to get studio heads to look at it? No, it’s not, because people in Hollywood don’t like to read scripts. This is why plotless arcade games and bubble gum wrappers are getting greenlit.
BleedingCool speculates the comic might be based on Aronofsky’s long-brewing project about Noah after the flood, but whatever the subject, this quote says a hell of a lot about the state of things in Hollywood:
Aronofsky says he’s usually the “only one in the room” excited about an idea and always struggles to get each of his films produced. Comic book movies, for some reason, seem like a safer bet to studios and even underground comics get turned into big budget films. “It seems like if you come up with an original script, in Hollywood it’s not as effective as a comic book. It doesn’t even have to be successful as a comic; I mean how successful were ‘Kick-Ass’ or ‘Scott Pilgrim’? Those were fringe comics, right, and they were basically turned in to big pictures.” [ThePlaylist]
In fairness, Kick-Ass was already financially successful and Scott Pilgrim had a cult following before they were films, but I see his point. Why should the guy who made The Wrestler and The Black Swan (and hopefully a Wolverine movie that doesn’t suck) have trouble getting anyone in the room excited about his desire to print money for them? I wish he were bringing his ideas to us and letting us invest in whatever crazy, awesome thing he’s planning. Speaking of which, can movies be funded with Kool-Aid points?