Darren Aronofsky doesn't generally make things easy for himself. Whether it's making independent films like Pi and Requiem For A Dream outside the studio system and refusing to accept cuts or working within the system to create dangerously ambitious projects like The Fountain and the upcoming Noah, it seems that Aronofsky isn't interested in making something if there isn't a chance things could go badly. In the case of The Fountain, things went catastrophically, at least at first; the initial plan for the centuries-spanning sci-fi romance was to film it with Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt in the leads for a higher budget than the version that was actually produced, but when it first fell through and the writer/director thought his film would never see the light of day, he decided to produce a comic-book version of his script with artist Kent Williams, whose stirring imagery served as a guideline for The Fountain's eventual resurrection with Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz and a smaller budget. That comic isn't a blip, though: Aronofsky's set to release a Noah comic (co-written by Ari Handel and illustrated by Niko Henrichon, known for the phenomenal Pride of Baghdad) alongside his big-budget feature film on the day it's released. It's not the same story translated to the page, however, as the comic is based on Aronofsky and Handel's original first-draft screenplay set in a more fantastical world, and looks to be much braver and more ambitious than the Russell Crowe picture is likely to be.
