According to a story from The Hollywood Reporter, there is some drama going on between filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and Paramount Studios stemming from his recent cut of the movie Noah. The studio screened the version of the movie to three test groups: One primarily Jewish audience, one made up mostly of Christians and one “general audience.” According to the report, in all three cases, the reactions were “troubling.”
Aside from The Fountain, Aronofsky, the director behind films including The Wrestler, Pi, The Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream, has avoided major studio blockbusters in his career. The story says that he reportedly “doesn’t care” about their opinion regarding his creative choices and has been “dismissive” to their changes. Though brief footage from the $125 million epic has been well received by some religious audiences, the film and script have raised some concerns over its Biblical accuracy. A consultant who worked on films including Ray and the Narnia franchise said that Paramount feels that it could be dangerous if the film does “go against the core audience’s beliefs.” Screenwriter and author Brian Godawa, who saw an early version of the script last year said the film would be “unbiblical and uninteresting” and “will ruin for decades the possibility of making a really great and entertaining movie of this Bible hero.” Aronofsky’s film is said to have an environmentalist twist, and in addition to “slightly tweaked” versions of animals and wildlife, “fantastical beings” play a role in the film. Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore told THR that the screenings are just part of the “normal preview process” …
