Darren Aronofsky's NOAH'S ARK Films In Spring But Will It Star Christian Bale?

By Matt Holmes / October 4, 2011

Darren Aronofsky's first movie since the extraordinary success of Black Swan is now finally set in stone (though The Wolverine was similarly chiseled in granite this time last year before a tsunami hit, so nothing is ever certain in Hollywood!) and it will be his Noah's Ark epic that he has wanted to make for at least the past four years that we've known about it. Perhaps his desire to re-tell the most outlandish tale in the bible goes back to his Sunday school days, who knows? €Since I was a kid, I have been moved and inspired by the story of Noah and his family€™s journey,€ the director says. Deadline reports that Paramount Pictures have agreed to front half of the considerable $130 million production costs which New Regency had previously agreed to co-finance their $75 million half in the summer and Noah's Ark is now set to go before camera's in the Spring. The film has been one of the biggest tough sells in recent memory, what with 2007's comedic take on Noah with Evan Almighty costing a whopping $170 million to make and only returning $100 million back domestically... though in recent weeks 20th Century Fox were battling hard with Paramount for the deal. The film is reportedly going by the title, 'Noah'. Back in June, I said that Aronofsky need an A-lister to convince a studio to front their cash on the picture and very quickly Christian Bale, star of one of the biggest franchises of all time and who will be coming off next year's sure to be box office smash The Dark Knight Rises, was reported to be in early talks for the bearded role. With Paramount Pictures now fronting $75 million, presumably it's a good sign that Aronofsky is confident of getting his man. Bale is of course a method man, character actor by trade and someone who is really only happy if he is pushing his craft to the limit. He almost isn€™t happy unless he is killing himself for his work and him starring in such an epic tale is a tantalizing prospect. Aronofsky has had his eye on Bale for a while and at one point was looking at working with him on The Fighter before he left production and his replacement helmer David O. Russell would go on to direct the Welsh born actor to his first Oscar statue. Aronofsky€™s script has been re-written by Oscar nominated scribe John Logan whose success with Gladiator may have someway gone to convincing studios that there could be money to be had here. Earlier this year Aronofsky set comic book artist Nico Henrichon with the task of creating a Noah's Ark graphic novel that would work like a pitch to studios who were clearly confused why Joe Popcorn would be interested in an ancient biblical tale, hoping they could finally realise what a spectacular visual orgy he had in mind. The unusual way to sell a movie has clearly worked. Although we can't yet be sure just how big Aronofsky plans to go with his picture, we do have some intriguing quotes to go on;

€œIt€™s a great script and it€™s huge. And we€™re starting to feel out talent. And then we€™ll probably try and set it up€ It€™s the end of the world and it€™s the second most famous ship after the Titanic. So I€™m not sure why any studio won€™t want to make it€It€™s a really cool project and I think it€™s really timely because it€™s about environmental apocalypse which is the biggest theme, for me, right now for what€™s going on on this planet,€ he said. €œSo I think it€™s got these big, big themes that connect with us. Noah was the first environmentalist. He€™s a really interesting character. Hopefully they€™ll let me make it. 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.€

However before we get carried away with ourselves we should note that Bale's name is actually missing from Deadline's write-up piece today. He is an actor much in demand right now but he has kept cards close to his chest over what his plans are for 2012. We know Spike Lee wants him to star opposite Josh Brolin as the villain in his Oldboy remake and it might be a good role for him coming off playing a superhero. Plus there's been talks of him working with his Public Enemies director Michael Mann on Gold and working with Clint Eastwood on A Star is Born remake but none of those projects sound as ambitious as Noah's Ark, which I presume is favourite. But of course we've been here before when Aronofsky has left his imagination go wild and we got The Fountain, one of the biggest artistic failures of the 21st century. With two smaller and damn near perfect movies in The Wrestler & Black Swan coming from the director since, it's going to be interesting to see what lessons he has learnt about character studies as he lines up his Noah's Ark re-telling and who he might go for if Bale turns him down (Brad Pitt or Hugh Jackman we know Aronofsky is friendly with, so presumably them, but certainly it'll need to be an A-lister). Are you excited for Noah's Ark?