When Darren Aronofsky revealed his idea for an Evan Almighty sequel, most people told him he was crazy. But he was only listening to a higher power, and now we have the trailer for Darren Aronofsky’s Noah, starring Russell Crowe in the Steve Carell role. There’s an international version below with some more footage.
If you’ll remember, Paramount and Aronofsky have reportedly been feuding over the final edit, and it supposedly hasn’t tested well. Some religious consultants also bashed the script on account of it having an “environmentalist” bent. In past interviews, Aronofsky has described the film as being about “the environmental apocalypse” (which is literally true of the story, even if it sounds political), describing Noah as “the first environmentalist.”
My guess is that Paramount was hoping to tap into the church market with a Bible story (which, incidentally, was exactly the plan that flopped so hard with Evan Almighty), while neglecting to realize that it was still a Darren Freakin’ Aronofsky movie. People that will go straight from the church to the theater tend to require simpler themes, like Ja Rule being in love with a church girl, or Kirk Cameron beating up his computer because it showed him porn, or a lawyer named “Deeds” learning the value of good deeds in Good Deeds. Believe it or not, commercial Christianity generally isn’t concerned with rigorous Bible study.
In any case, it’s hard to draw many conclusions from the trailer. It is a little disappointing that Aronofsky chose to do the animals with 100% CGI instead of using real animals, but I’m told this was a safety precaution, as after a single day of shooting with Russell Crowe, they were missing a partridge, both pheasants, and a lamb’s leg. Crowe denied any knowledge, but smelled strongly of rosemary.
Release Date: March 28.
