Hollywood is always on the lookout for the next hot property and the moment
Darren Aronofsky's obscure passion project about a competitive ballerina and her supernatural/psychological troubles crossed that magical $100 million mark having cost just $13 million to make and won an Oscar for it's leading lady in the mean time - suddenly the guy behind
The Fountain and
Requiem For a Dream became a director of clout. The times have clearly changed for the auteur director who by now is used to struggling, begging, compromising and pleading with studios to get his films off the ground (all the majors passed on
Black Swan and it's a miracle
The Wrestler got made) and it didn't take long post-that film's success for 20th Century Fox to tie Aronofsky down to a 2-year development deal, the idea being
he would make The Wolverine and then be rewarded the big bucks to make whatever personal vision he had as a follow-up. It would be one for Fox (which wasn't too bad considering it would be a stand-alone story with a character so fitting for his friend
Hugh Jackman) and one for himself but sadly for X-geeks, Aronofsky eventually exited the project after he had second thoughts about living in a post-Tsunami Japan for the best part of a year away from his family. The 2-year deal with Fox was subsequently over. In the few months since Aronofsky has become a man much in demand and just two weeks ago word was out that he had become interested in reviving an old Warner Bros project titled
Human Nature, a movie that sounded like a straight rip-off of Planet of the Apes. The movie would be about 'a man who is cryogenically frozen and wakes up years later to a world in which humans have become pets of another species' and would star
George Clooney. We were told that project was in the early stages of development from producer Akiva Goldsman (screenwriter of Batman & Robin and the Dan Brown movies) and it wasn't clear whether that would be next for Aronofsky and indeed it's not surprising to hear word of other projects perhaps coming his way. Badass Digest reports that their inside sources say Aronofsky is being pursued by WB (same studio behind Human Nature) for their religious epic Moses that would focus on "the Exodus, when Moses led the Jews out of Egypt and promptly got them lost in the desert". The idea of Aronofsky being courted for a visual orgy religious epic isn't actually that surprising as he has tried for years to crack his own take on the Noah's Ark fable and perhaps there's a chance he could bring much of what he wanted there to a Moses film at a major studio. Of course 20th Century Fox are also trying to crack their own Moses film and may yet come to Aronofsky with an offer for theirs if the relationship can be mended after The Wolverine. According to Badass Digest, Disney are also pursuing Aronofsky to fill the director's chair on Maleficent, the live action and revisionist take on Sleeping Beauty after Tim Burton bailed on the project last week. Burton had been working with his Alice in Wonderland writer Linda Woolverton to shape the fairy tale picture that looked to re-capture the magic that brought $1 billion in from Alice in Wonderland last February. Angelina Jolie would star in the title role. After Burton walked out, Harry Potter director David Yates was being courted but presumably he has had enough of witches and that kind of magic for now. Disney trying to court Aronofsky seems like a stretch but then again Warner Bros. managed to attract Sam Raimi for their Wizard of Oz re-imagning when he looked out of reach and Aronofsky did find himself attached to The Wolverine after all. Though whether Aronofsky is offered the same kind of "one for you one for me" deal by Disney that he got from Fox is unlikely. I would expect Aronofsky to turn down both Moses and Maleficient... but you just never know in this industry, do you? And there's a nagging feeling in me that because Aronofsky was so interested in a Noah's Ark movie... maybe, just maybe, he will pursue Moses.