Dramatization.
Last year we reported Darren Aronofsky was making a comic book based on a script he was having trouble financing because, in work-in-progress Noah, based on the biblical flood story. His scheme worked: Paramount and New Regency agreed to produce the movie with a $150 million budget. This was after four years of failing to get funding because he didn’t have a picture book to show studio execs. So if you’re trying to get a movie funded — if Noah and Cowboys and Aliens have taught us anything — make it a comic book first, even if nobody reads it.
Now Deadline reports the movie is set to go into production this July with Russell Crowe signed to play Noah in the “edgy Biblical re-telling of Noah’s Ark”. Ugh. “Edgy”. Everything’s edgy. Anyway, Russell Crowe was already rumored to play Noah and even tweeted cryptically about it, but now it’s official.
So what can we expect from the film? Aronofsky told TheGuardian:
Noah was the first person to plant vineyards and drink wine and get drunk. It’s there in the Bible – it was one of the first things he did when he reached land. There was some real survivor’s guilt going on there. He’s a dark, complicated character.
Sounds edgy.