I don’t care how many Bible stories or translations you’ve read, and I don’t care how many films based on those stories you’ve seen. You have never seen anything like what Darren Aronofsky has planned for “Noah.”
Sure, the basic broad strokes of the story are pretty evident. Noah (Russell Crowe) hears the voice of God warning him that the world cannot be allowed to survive in the corrupted, ruined form Noah sees around him. It is a violent, freaky, scary world that Aronofsky and his co-writer Ari Handel have created. I’m particularly excited to see how Aronofsky brings to life the Watchers, eleven-foot-tall fallen angels with six arms and no wings. They have a major presence in the script, and they’re fascinating. Early on, when Noah needs to go see his grandfather, he has to move through the homeland of the Watchers, something that is not easy to do.
Noah’s grandfather is the 900 year old Methuselah, and word today is that Anthony Hopkins is joining the cast to play the role. He’s only got three scenes in the film in the script I read, but they’re all crucial, and they are beautifully written. It’s a good role, and I can’t wait to see what sort of make-up they put on him to make him look like he’s been alive and walking the earth since the days of Adam and Eve.
As wild and dangerous as parts of the script read, I think it’s going to be interesting to see what happens when people start to discuss the ideas embedded in the work and Aronofsky’s approach to Biblical history. Is his movie meant as pure allegory? Is this how Aronofsky imagines actual events? There is a sincerity from the very first page that will make it hard for people to argue with Aronofsky’s intent here. He’s written this as a serious look at our place on this planet and our rights as citizens of the world. I think it would be hard to pin this version of the story down to any one faith, and in shaking off the dusty respectability of the accepted version of the story, Aronofsky and Handler may have actually found a way to give it a stronger thematic resonance than I would have imagined.
WIth a cast that now includes Emma Watson, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone and Logan Lerman, and with Matthew Libatique shooting the film and ILM contributing effects, one thing’s for sure… Aronofksy’s “Noah” is going to be a singular experience, and I’m dying to see this as soon as it’s ready.
“Noah” should arrive in theaters sometime in 2014.