DARREN ARONOFSKY - THE FOUNTAIN BY DANIEL ROBERT EPSTEIN
According to Warner Bros, Darren Aronofsky is the next Stanley Kubrick. It may be hard to believe that any filmmaker can be compared to what many consider the greatest filmmaker of all time. But Aronofsky’s new movie The Fountain starring Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz may very well prove Warner Bros claim correct. The Fountain combines elements of Braveheart, a love story and 2001: A Space Odyssey into one film where a man discovers the fountain of youth and all throughout history he tries to save the life of the woman he loves.
Visiting the set for The Fountain was so much fun and very exciting. I remember first seeing PI and while it didn’t grab me as much as Requiem for a Dream later did, I knew that Aronofsky was a major talent. Of course Requiem later proved that but everyone wants to know what he could do with a large budget. Walking into the assuming Montreal building that houses the sets for The Fountain you would never think that genius is afoot in there. After getting settled we were led into a monstrous room that held the last set that has been constructed for the film. It’s a giant spaceship that was built to look like it was made out of a tree. A freshly bald Hugh Jackman says something to Rachel Weisz, and then something else happened that I couldn’t see!
Daniel Robert Epstein: So is this an official teaser?
Darren Aronofsky: It's not really a teaser because we just threw it together. I didn't pick the performances. I just threw it together to get the crew psyched so they would show up on time [laughs].
DRE: When I spoke to your producer, Eric Watson, I mentioned that in the footage you showed us that there was no camera strapped to anyone’s chest. He said “I think we’ve worked through that one.” Is that true?
ARONOFSKY: Yeah I think that every film has its own grammar. I mean, every story has its own film grammar so you have to sort of figure out what the story is about and then figure out what each scene is about and then that tells you where to put the camera. This was just a very different film. I think that Pi and Requiem for a Dream are connected because on Pi we had such limited resources and on Requiem we had a little bit more money and so I was able to explore some of the visual ideas that I had. But I just wanted this film to look like its own thing. So I think that there are connections to other things, but I think that it is own piece.
DRE: Were you going for a statelier feel?
ARONOFSKY: Really the whole design of the film is a crucifix actually. So almost everything is straight behind, straight in front or from the sides or straight above or straight below. That just came out of trying to define it and basically in trying to figure out how to shoot the spaceship because it's like a circular, spherical shape and how to put the camera into a sphere was really a challenge. So I tried to put some order onto it and then I realized that there was a crucifix of the Conquistadors and it sort of played in very well and then it sort of evolved into all the other time periods.
DRE: Could you talk about why The Fountain fell apart the first time? I read you and Brad Pitt had creative differences.
ARONOFSKY: That's not true. The reality of it is that Brad and I worked on it for about two and a half years. So it's kind of like if you had a relationship with someone and you broke up after two and a half years and you had to define the actual reason. Is it because they leave the toothpaste cap off? It's never just one reason. The ultimate reason it shut down is because of Brad, but Brad didn't do it. He didn't come to Australia but why he didn't come has to do with a lot of things and has to do with many politics of his own life as well as what had happened before that on a film. That had to do, I think, mostly with the fact that it's a very different movie and I think that it's scary for anyone to get involved with it. That just shows you the bravery of someone like Hugh.
DRE: When Hugh Jackman took the part how much changed?
ARONOFSKY: Well, what happened is that after the film fell apart in October 2002 or 2003. I tried to find something else to do and I started working on other projects and developing other ideas and then about six or seven months later I couldn't sleep one night and I was sitting in my office and I realized that I was an independent filmmaker. That's where I started so we know how to do things cheaply. We did Pi for $60,000 and Requiem for $4 million. So there must be a cheap way of doing this movie. I decided to figure out the cheapest way to do it that still preserved the vision and the big concepts that I wanted to explore. What resulted is that I worked for about two weeks and the script just came out better. I think that what happened was being seven weeks out from production and having spent a lot of money to get there we really understood exactly what things cost and what would be expensive and what would not be expensive. The scope of the battle scene has changed. What I wanted to do at the time was hundreds of people versus hundreds of people but that was before Troy and King Arthur came out. Six years ago I was sort of writing that going, “Wow. Look how cool Braveheart was. Now Hollywood can do cool battle scenes. So I'm going to do a battle scene.” But there've been so many battle scenes that now when you see Troy or 'Lord of the Rings, where the scope of the battle scene was so huge, they have to be reinvented because they're not interesting no matter how big it is. So I decided to reduce it to what it's really about which is one guy trying to get through overwhelming masses. To do that was a lot cheaper than having all these Conquistadors and Mayans. Ultimately the same film but it's just really boiled down to its essence.
When the film fell apart I kind of reinvented it and said, “I only want to work with actors that really get it and make it work.” I didn't want it to be a star driven thing anymore. I wanted it to be much more of an independent film. That's how I wanted to approach it even though the budget is bigger than a normal independent film. I wanted to approach it purely as an independent film. That was the whole idea. No more bullshit and lets just make this thing purely independent. So Hugh was of course someone whose work I knew, but I didn't really know his work beyond X-Men which was a very specific thing, but not being a big comic fan or X-Men fan I didn't really know who Wolverine was until Hugh Jackman did it. But I went to see The Boy From Oz [on Broadway] and even though the role was so much different from what we're doing here, almost the complete opposite in fact, but the amount of talent that he displayed onstage was just overwhelming and I was like, “This guy is great.” Then I met him and he was really an amazing guy and I could just see that it was the right time for both us because he needed a role that could show a lot of dimension. He gets to play three different time periods and three different characters. When Hugh joined the film we met every week for a couple of hours and worked on it. So I think that it evolved somewhat and I kept rewriting it.
I just needed someone who could give that commitment. This film would not be possible without Hugh because technically and emotionally he's just so good. It's just hard to believe how good he is. If you ask any person on this crew what they think of Hugh Jackman they'll admit that they've never seen anything like it. I'll give him an emotional note and he'll hit it every time. He'll physically be there and then emotionally he'll be there. It's just remarkable and a great pleasure. Rachel read the script and just really was very aggressive about getting it. What I like about Rachel is that she's sort of like Hugh in that there's not a role in American cinema that completely defines them so that they can become part of this and make it their own. I knew that she was very talented and then when I started talking to her about the material she was thinking about it. A lot of people don't really think about that stuff. They just do whatever.
DRE: The original script you did for Brad Pitt is now becoming a graphic novel from Vertigo. How do you look at that now?
ARONOFSKY: I don't know if it's better but it is different. The thing is that it's always an evolutional process. It's constantly growing and constantly changing. I think that if we'd have made that film it would've been a great film but it would've been a very, very different movie than what this is because in many ways I've already made that film. I got so close to shooting it and I was completely cast and I was completely ready to go and the sets were built and psychologically I thought I was shooting. So I did everything but shoot it and show it to people. The whole lead up to that is one of the biggest parts of the job so the shooting is such a small part of it. Emotionally, I've kind of made that film and this film is different film. It's kind of like my fourth film even though it is the third film that people are seeing. To me it feels like a fourth film because even though I say it's better it's a different film. I mean, I hope that Requiem is better than Pi. I hope that Pi is better than my student films and I'm hoping that I'm getting better as I get older.
DRE: What’s the essence of The Fountain?
ARONOFSKY: It's weird because I talk about Pi which is about God and math and Kabbalah and paranoia. So I don't really make the typical genre film that fits into a clear section. Pi could be sci-fi or drama or an art film. It could be an indie film so I don't know where this fits. I've been saying that it's a psychedelic sci-fi film which is the only thing that I can think of and there's a long tradition of psychedelic sci-fi films. It's a good genre, but I don't know how to describe it. For me, one of the big things was the fountain of youth which I thought was a really cool theme. It's an old theme and one of the oldest stories that mankind has been telling. It's in Genesis with the tree of life. It's in Gilgamesh and Ponce de Leon searched for it. But Hollywood hasn't really done much with it unless you count Nip/Tuck and Extreme Makeover. However it is this big theme in society. In The New York Times magazine there was an article about this doctor who thinks that aging is a disease and can be cured. There's this huge quest in our culture now to stay young and we do it mostly physically. Although, there are always health diets that are supposed to keep you young. People are living longer so I was thinking about what the repercussions are on people and on love because now that people are living longer you're not just married to someone for 20 or 30 years but for like 50 or 60 years.
People are saying that our kids are going to live to a 110. What does that kind of lifetime mean? They don't give us any tools in high school or elementary school to think about dying and death. The only thing that they do is to tell you to collect autumn leaves and say how beautiful they are. But they don't ever tell you that when we look at old people we sort of shut it off and lock them up in old age homes and don't include them in our lives. So it was interesting to start exploring that literature as I started to get a little older.
DRE: I was one of the last people to interview Hubert Selby before he died. He was so wonderful but he said he was unhappy and ready to die. Did working with him on Requiem kind of inspire you to do a story about the fountain of youth?
ARONOFSKY: I don't think so. It's weird, I turn 36 on Saturday. So I think that I started on The Fountain right about the turn of the millennium right when I turned 30. It's a little pathetic to say, but when you turn 30 it's the first time that you're not in your 20’s anymore and you start to go, “Oh shit.” There are all these kids that are in their 20’s and they're the youth now. It's just interesting how that changes, and then you start thinking about, “Wow 40 isn't that far.” In fact, that there's a short story that Selby wrote about those big markers in life. First it's 18, then it's 21 then 30 then 45 then 60 then 75. They get further and further those big markers. But turning 30 was when I started to think about it and also my parents both got cancer and were fighting it and beat it, but their mortality started to get to me. Everything wasn't as hunky-dory like it was.
I think that he just made me start thinking. I don't really remember the whole evolution of the idea. I mean, it's very much like Pi in that when I write an original it's kind of more of a tapestry. I'll take different threads from different ideas and weave a carpet of cool ideas together. So I was reading something about the conquistadors. There's a book by Bernal Diaz called The Conquest of Spain. He was one of Cortez's foot soldiers and he wrote a story. It's an amazing book. I read that. The space stuff I think was influenced a little bit by Space Oddity by David Bowie and that's probably why the character was named Tom.
DRE: Did you talk to Bowie about doing some music?
ARONOFSKY: Yeah, well not music, but hopefully a third Major Tom song. It'd be cool. He's working with Clint [Mansell] our composer. So we're talking and hopefully that'll happen. So there was that influence and then present day stuff. But Ari, who co-wrote the story with me, was getting his PhD in neuroscience and so that whole world of neuroscience sort of influenced the present and then we just sort of sewed it together.
DRE: Both Mark Margolis and Ellen Burstyn were in Requiem for a Dream and now they are in The Fountain. How is it working with them again?
ARONOFSKY: I like it. It's easy when you have a shorthand. They understand and do what you want.
DRE: Did you have them in mind when you wrote the parts?
ARONOFSKY: Yes, I wrote Ellen's role for her and I wrote Mark's role for him.
DRE: The Fountain seems a bit more hopeful than your other films, was that conscious?
ARONOFSKY: It was a little conscious. I sort of wanted to do something more like this when I finished Pi but the opportunity to do Requiem came up. It wasn't really an opportunity, but the chance to fight to get it made and to actually have it happen came up. Requiem was very much my twenties and I really felt I should do it and finish it. Those themes, the TV addiction, the relationship between the mother and the son was stuff that I had written about and then I found it in Selby's book almost exactly like I had done it, but much better than I could ever write. So I sort of owed it to myself to make it. But I think that thematically I was already starting to think about a happier ending. It's not about selling out or anything. If you look at this film it's nowhere near selling out. It's the hardest film to get made. Literally, every single person in Hollywood said no to this movie at least once including the people making it. It was very difficult to make and I think that the reason is because it’s not an absolutely clear genre film. Really, at the core of this film is just a simple love story.
DRE: Do you think The Fountain graphic novel, that Kent Williams is drawing, will spoil the movie you are making?
ARONOFSKY: I don't think so. People go and see Batman and everyone has read a Batman comic so I don't think that hurts you at all. I think that everyone who's going to spend 30 bucks on a comic book is going to spend the ten bucks to go and see the movie. It's a different experience. What’s nice about this is that it's not a comic book based on a movie so it's not like one of those cheesy comic books where they do likeness of the actors. It's not going to be one of those that they sort of pump out just as another medium. This is its own thing. I mean, you can look at the artwork and doesn't look like Rachel [Weisz]. Kent Williams didn't know who was cast in it.
DRE: How similar is the story in the graphic novel to the one in the movie?
ARONOFSKY: The story is similar but there are some things that are different. I think that it'll just add to the conversation. If people see some of the images beforehand, that's what is going to happen anyway. I'm hoping that we'll just get more people excited about coming to see the movie and vice versa.
DRE: Was the first Kent Williams book you ever read Havok and Wolverine?
ARONOFSKY: No. I'm not a comic book guy at all.
DRE: But you did Pi: The Book of Ants through Dark Horse a few years ago.
ARONOFSKY: That was just the studio. I made a comic book and what happened was that in college one of my college roommates who I now work with, Dan Sandler, was into comics and he showed me Frank Miller's stuff and so I started reading that stuff. But as a teenager I didn't have comic books at all. I think that I tried to start collecting for a week but I just never got into it. Then when I was older and I read Watchmen, Ronin and Dark Knight so I got really into it. I didn't actually know Kent's work. When the film fell apart the first time, before I even went to Warner Bros, I made sure that we could preserve the rights to the comic book. I said, “If Hollywood gives me a problem, I'll make a comic book out of it.”
I had to go to DC first. That was the deal, but then I had the rights to shop it. And it's not like it was a money thing because there's no money in comics. So I saved the rights for that and then when it fell apart I got in touch with DC and Karen Berger at Vertigo.
DRE: So The Fountain graphic novel will be a Vertigo book?
ARONOFSKY: It's Vertigo and I sort of knew them from before and they turned me on to artists.
DRE: When the graphic novel comes out who is going to be credited?
ARONOFSKY: It'll be Kent Williams. I wrote the screenplay. Ari [Handel] and I wrote the story so it's written by Darren and story by Darren and Ari.
DRE: How involved are you with the page by page interpretation?
ARONOFSKY: It's Kent's interpretation. I'm going to write and place the words and stuff. But he's completely interpreting the stuff and it's amazing that it's very close to what we were planning.
DRE: As a film fan yourself, can you look at your film career objectively and go “What will my tenth film be like?”
ARONOFSKY: I have no idea. I think that right now I never want to make another movie [laughs]. But it's day 56 of shooting. I remember at the end of Requiem all I wanted to do was get a DV camera and just do a small film. It changes. After shooting in front of a greenscreen for the last week, I never want to do a special effects movie again, but then the hunger comes back. So I think that the goal is just to make good films every time or at least try to make a good film. When The Fountain fell apart I thought that it'd be great just to take an assignment and shoot something. But I couldn't do it. I'm not one of those filmmakers that can just show up and shoot because I think the only way I can make a film that has good images and stuff is by pushing everyone. The only way that I can push myself and other people is that I think that I'm actually doing something that's exciting. You have to wake up wanting to do it and there will be days when you'll wake up and you'll not want to get out of bed and you have to have something that pulls you out and gets you going.
DRE: You had amazing websites for Pi and Requiem for a Dream; will that be the case for The Fountain as well?
ARONOFSKY: We're working on it. The Pi website was one of the first film websites out there and when we first started it, Sean Gullette, who was the star of the film, was very hip to the web and we were all hip because we were of that age group when the web first started. We were just coming out of college then and so we had all these ideas. We wanted to put it into USENET Groups that Max Cohen really existed and put this fake fiction in there which Blair Witch ended up using from the same company [Artisan Entertainment]. I won't mention anything about that just compare the posters. But we had those ideas and then we designed that Pi website and they were all like, “What is this stuff?” We were like, “We don't know what it is that it's called.” Then when Requiem came around films had started doing this, but they basically were billboards to tell where they were playing and they're still like that. Ninety percent of them suck.
DRE: How did the Requiem site come about?
ARONOFSKY: I knew that there were interesting experimental artists working in the internet and I sat next to some guy on an airplane that knew all these different cool artists were out there. I found these artists out there who had their own website and I sent them an email. They were in Europe and I asked if they would be interested. Turned out that they knew Pi and they had ideas and they came up with that whole sort of interactive thing. It was like one of the first film sites to do that and then they went on to do Donnie Darko and all these other award winning ones. I'd love to find something new, but I don't really know what you do now. Now there is so much expertise and brainpower it's hard to be at the cutting edge of what's cool and not go do something that's totally geeky. You want to do something that's actually interesting like those were and I'm not sure what that is yet. So I don't know yet.
DRE: You came really close to directing Watchmen.
ARONOFSKY: I got involved and I got that setup at Paramount and then they fired me. Well they didn't fire me, but they wanted to go now. They wanted to be in pre-production in January and I've been working on this for six years and I clearly have a hard time doing two things at once. I can do one project well so I couldn't really do it. As soon as we setup, they got really excited and wanted it in the summer of '06 and I was like, “This isn't a film you can rush because if you fuck it up there's going to be a lot of angry people.” The funny thing is that when I went to meet Bowie, one of the first things he said was, “Oh, are you doing Watchmen?" It turned out that he was developing an opera out of Watchmen. I was like, “If I do this film and I fuck it up, I'm going to piss David Bowie off.” The reason that I got involved is because David Hayter’s script and I thought that it was a great adaptation. I thought that it was better than any of the Sam Hamm scripts. I wish them all the best luck but I can't do it that quick. I have to take my time.
DRE: What about a Lone Wolf and Cub film?
ARONOFSKY: We're developing Lone Wolf and Cub. It's a fun but very hard piece to adapt. We're turning it into a western. You can't really do a samurai story.
DRE: Are you excited to see Sin City?
ARONOFSKY: Yeah, sure. I can't wait to see what they did. I love Robert Rodriguez and it looks cool. I've seen all the trailers. Frank Miller is great. He's directing and I'm really glad for him because for so long, so much of Hollywood wanted them to make it and he just wouldn't let go of it. He doesn't have that much anger when you talk to him which is amazing. With Batman I was like, “I'll only do it if you involve Frank Miller.” They thought that was a radical idea. I was like, “The guy is responsible for your moves ultimately.” He's responsible for making the whole title cool again.
I'm really excited to see Batman Begins. I think that it looks great. It's a hard thing to do because you have to make it for a real audience. Chris Nolan is a real filmmaker, there's no doubt.
Comic books and graphic novels are a great medium. It's incredibly underused. Since that great year of 1987 when Watchmen and Dark Knight came out, there've been very few things that have been that revolutionary. There's been great stuff, but nothing like that. So I think that it's a great medium to play with.
DRE: Do you have a quieter just talking type movie you want to do?
ARONOFSKY: A Kevin Smith type of thing?
DRE: A movie where nothing horrible is happening to the main characters, maybe something autobiographical.
ARONOFSKY: [Laughs] Pi is sort of autobiographical. That's my life, sitting in an apartment alone. I imagine that there's a limit of what I'll be attracted to wanting to do down the line so that's definitely possible. For some reason right now, when I go to movies I generally want to be taken to another world and I kind of like that. So I edge more towards Terry Gillian than I do John Cassavettes. But I do love Cassavettes movies. That's my general taste.
DRE: Do you have any tattoos?
ARONOFSKY: I'm too scared of needles. I don't get that concept.
DRE: Have you heard of SuicideGirls?
ARONOFSKY: Yeah. I do know of SuicideGirls.' Someone sent me a link at one point and I thought that it was very funny.
A Reincarnation Story That Won't Stay Dead By DAVID CARR Published: March 20, 2005
MONTREAL
INSIDE a giant warehouse ringed by trailers and generators on the outskirts of this frozen city, dozens of Mayan warriors stood ready, all armed with spears. The polyglot atmosphere on the movie set thickened at every turn: bare-bottomed men who spoke Mayan received directorial instructions in Spanish from Americans who also have enough French to make nice with the local crew of "The Fountain."
The movie is a science-fiction epic that spans three historical periods and rides on a bit of time travel. It is directed by the Brooklyn-born Darren Aronofsky, who came to out of nowhere with the mathematics-themed thriller "Pi" and followed up with the addiction drama "Requiem for a Dream," both of which were produced with a lot of moxie and very little money and played to major critical acclaim. Backed by Warner Brothers, "The Fountain" was supposed to be Mr. Aronofsky's breakout studio movie, with a budget approaching $100 million and Brad Pitt in a lead role. But just weeks before it was scheduled to shoot in 2002, with crew and actors already ensconced in Australia, Mr. Pitt abandoned the project for "Troy," saying he had issues with the script. In Hollywood, that generally would be the end of the story.
It was a crushing disappointment for Mr. Aronofsky; he vividly remembers flying back to Australia from Los Angeles to tell the crew that the film had collapsed. But his refusal to let go of a project he had been working on for years, along with surprisingly durable support from Warner, means the movie is back, albeit with a reduced vision. "The Fountain," which is about the search for eternal life, seems to have its own grip on the concept.
"For four or five months, I tried to find something else," Mr. Aronofsky said, working a salad in his trailer during a lunch break. "But every time I started to circle a new idea, I realized I was closer to making 'The Fountain' than any of those other films."
So Mr. Aronofsky continued to push his improbable epic, even though Warner offered him the opportunity to direct a number of large films, including "Batman Begins" (which eventually went to another sophisticated young director, Christopher Nolan.)
"How many different projects was he offered?" said Jeff Robinov, Warner's president of production. "But he came back to me and said, 'I want to make my movie - what can I do to make that happen?'" Mr. Aronofsky whittled his budget to $35 million, replaced Mr. Pitt with Hugh Jackman of "X-Men" fame, and, finally, the movie was his to make.
With his fleur-de-lis baseball cap and wispy beard, Mr. Aronofsky, 35, could be one of the French-Canadian grips if he were not quietly running the show. On set, the project did not have the feel of a movie saved from turnaround - it felt more like a caper. During a fight scene, a chunk of Mr. Jackman's beard was ripped away and the entire crew, including Mr. Aronofsky, scanned the ground, trying to distinguish the gray wisp from the abundant moss.
"The beard has been found!" one of the grips shouted triumphantly. "The beard has been found!" came back a mock joyful chorus from the rest of the crew.
Mr. Aronofsky has been making films with the same hardy band of familiars for 10 years, and now they are working with all the fancy toys and support that go with big studio work. Their project is very ambitious: "The Fountains" is a love story that spans 1,000 years as a man searches for a cure for his terminally ill wife.
On the set, Mr. Jackman, cast as a Spanish conquistador in the 1500's for a portion of the film, crept down a high-walled corridor near a Mayan temple with two soldiers behind him. Jungle vegetation hung everywhere and mist machines overhead made sure everything was dank. Mr. Aronofsky gave a signal and suddenly the warriors were streaming into the scene, overwhelming Mr. Jackman as he flailed at the mob. Once subdued, he was hoisted on their shoulders to be presented to the Mayan spiritual leader who was ensconced at the top of the temple. Mr. Jackman, who spent the day getting the stuffing knocked out of him in take after take, said it was all terrific fun.
Mr. Aronofsky, staring down at a videoboard in his hand to see a playback, said: "We put a lot of time and money into this shot because it is the third scene in the movie. I have been thinking about this scene for six years." In his trailer during a break in shooting, he continued: "It has been birth, death, rebirth for this film, which is interesting because it is very much what the movie is all about as well. Each time the movie has died and come back, it has come back leaner and meaner. What we shot this morning used to be a $15 million scene."
Mr. Aronofsky is making do, something he is more than used to. "Pi," a percussive black-and-white portrait of a not-so-beautiful mind, was made for $60,000, with his best friend as the star while his mom managed the catering operation. "Requiem for a Dream," a portrait of relationships addled and then curdled by drugs, cost $5 million.
"Pi" earned Mr. Aronofsky the Sundance directing award in 1998, and Ellen Burstyn received an Oscar nomination for her role in "Requiem." So the filmmaker's currency grew to the point where a number of studios and producers were knocking on his door.
"The fact that we're in Montreal and that we have huge sets and a big crew that can do almost anything is different," he said. "But I end up spending my days doing exactly the same things, worrying about the same issues and focusing on the same things."
And, he said, the stakes are actually no higher than they were before: "There's always been a lot of pressure and tension on the line. If 'Pi' didn't work out, I have no idea what my career would be. I don't think I would have gotten another shot at it. If `Requiem' didn't work out, they would have called me a 'one-hit wonder with a sophomore slump.' "
Mr. Aronofsky wrote "The Fountain" with Ari Handel, a long-time associate who happens to have a Ph.D. in neuroscience."We spent time walking around the streets of Manhattan for two years," Mr. Aronofsky said. "It took us a long time to write. We basically talked story, and then I would go off and disappear and write, come back and then we'd talk about it."
The outcome, a love story with scenes that go off into outer space, is not exactly "Hitch." "It is about a man's search for the fountain of youth at the core," Mr. Aronofsky explained. "It's about a man who's searching for eternal life whose wife is dying, who comes to terms with his own mortality and comes to terms with his own life and his own existence through trying to save his wife. It is not that simple, but it is true in a way that attracted me."
Mr. Jackman, sitting on a canvas chair after his morning of getting pounded on by the Mayan extras, Mr. Jackman said the rigors of the project suited him: "It is the hardest job I've worked and by far the most satisfying. Darren wants blood. As a director, he is very much inside my head."
Certainly, Mr. Aronofsky and his collaborators - including the producer, Eric Watson, and the cinematographer, Matthew Libatique, with whom he has worked in the past - have taken pains to bring authenticity to the sprawling project. Some 20 of the 70 extras cast as Mayan warriors are Mayan. And the day job of the man cast as Mayan spiritual leader is, well, a Mayan spiritual leader. When the Mayans got off the plane from Guatemala in Montreal, it took them 20 minutes to get over the fact that they could see their breath.
There will be lots more shooting, to capture Spain and Central America in the 1500's, a present-day American city, and then a trip out to a nebula near Orion anywhere from 150 to 500 years into the future.
But it's not as esoteric as it sounds, Mr. Aronofsky said: "There's major best sellers that are about living forever. It's the biggest theme in our society. If you look at all the extreme makeovers and all that stuff, it's all about staying young. This movie taps into a lot of those themes."
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:15 pm Posts: 25452 Location: Under my wing like Sanford & Son Gender: Male
I also saw "Boy from Oz" on Broadway, and it was enough to convince me that Jackman has enough talent for any role he takes on. I'm excited for this, but they're setting a lot of people up for dissapointment by comparing it to 2001.
_________________ Now that god no longer exists, the desire for another world still remains.
Darren Aronofsky and Rachel Weisz Talk About "The Fountain"
From Rebecca Murray
Interview with Aronofsky and Weisz on the Sci-Fi/Drama "The Fountain"
What is “The Fountain?†Writer/director Darren Aronofsky follows up “Pi†and “Requiem for a Dream†with “The Fountain,†a mix of sci-fi, drama, and romance. “The Fountain†takes place over the course of 1,000 years and follows one man’s struggle to save the life of the woman he loves.
In a Nutshell – The Story of “The Fountain:†“The Fountain†star Rachel Weisz said, “It’s a love story, very passionate, raw love story. And it’s also about life and death. That’s what I think it’s about.†Aronofsky added, “It’s about the search for the Fountain of Youth for a man trying to save his own life and his wife’s life.â€
Darren Aronofsky on His Passion for “The Fountain:†“Why? Because it’s fun to watch conquistadors fight Mayans, and it’s fun to shoot guys into outer space floating around, so I wanted to do a little bit of everything.
But I think one of the initial things was, ‘How come no one’s ever made a film about the Tree of Life?' In Genesis, there’s two trees: the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. It’s something that’s been in human mythology forever. People wanting to live forever.
In our oldest story it’s Gilgamesh through the Bible through the tree that Buddha sat underneath to Ponce de Leon as a conquistador. It’s just been throughout mythology forever, but Hollywood’s never really made a movie about it. Yet wanting to live forever is so deep in our culture and youth culture’s so big from ‘Nip/Tuck’ to everything. People pray to be young so I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a good thing to write about.' So that’s sort of where it started. And then to tell the story I realized, because it’s about immortality, it’s pretty hard to tell it within a film that takes place just in the present, so it spans a thousand years. Everyone knew what the millennium was because we just had the millennium so it’s kind of cool - a thousand years. So it takes place in the 16th century, 20th century right now, and the 26th century.â€
Darren Aronofsky on Changes Between the Brad Pitt Version and the Hugh Jackman Version: “It was a $90 million movie when it was with Brad and then when it fell apart, no one wanted to make it. Partly because there was a lot of money against it and also because it kind of got, it just had stalled and everyone gets scared of that. So about seven months after it fell apart and I had been looking for another project, I woke up one night in the middle of the night and couldn’t sleep. I went into my office and right across from me were all the books that I had read to do research for it. I was like, ‘You know what? This is still in my blood; I can’t get it out of my blood.'
I realized that I was an independent filmmaker and I made ‘Pi’ for $60,000. I knew how to do that so I was like, ‘So what’s the gorilla version of a $90 million movie?' And what it is is a $35 million film, which is what it became.
I rewrote it so that they couldn’t say no to it because it was such a good deal, because it was big, epic action adventure and it was cheap. It’s changed a lot, but I only stayed with it because at the core it was the same material that I wanted. It was the same story, it just became something more reignable. I could reign in.
I just reduced it down to one thing. It used to be a much different type of action [movie] and I just said, ‘What is it really about? Well, it’s about a guy trying to live forever. That’s what it’s about. So how do I show that?' So it became Hugh Jackman versus the forces of evil versus him having a whole army. I just reduced it to its core and it actually became better. So it’s a much better film than it would have been, but it still would have been a good film - I know that.â€
Rachel Weisz on Her Attraction to Sci-Fi/Fantasy Films: “…It’s the supernatural, the world outside our normal world. Different rules apply, anything’s possible, [and it’s] a world of the imagination. I just I think I’m just drawn to magical, supernatural things. I think as children we’re all drawn to that, and then maybe as adults most grow out of it. Some of us don’t and I definitely haven’t grown out of it.â€
Rachel Weisz on Her Character in “The Fountain: “The main character in the present day is, I’d say, she’s a pretty regular person. Like any person who’s being confronted by the fact that they’re going to die much, much sooner than they want to and they’re gonna have to leave their husband behind. That’s who she is. Who she is becomes irrelevant. It’s really how is it that she deals with that and I think that’s the question that I had to ask myself. I think everyone asks themselves how do we deal with it if we were gonna have to go now? Would we behave, would we be able to come to terms with leaving? And so I think she’s brave.
I think she has some nobility. She’s not a heroine; she’s someone who’s struggling to be brave and strong when her life is kind of falling apart.
Then in the first section of the movie, she’s Queen Isabella of Spain so she’s regal, and maybe more unknowable, a little more distant, a little less accessible totally.â€
“The Izzi character is the crux - the present day is the crux of the film. It’s about her coming to terms with her own death and her life and what it means. And that’s really what the film’s about,†explained Aronofsky, adding, “It’s about does death make us human? If we actually could live forever, would we still be people? And that’s really what makes it and that’s really what the film is about.â€
Rachel Weisz on Relating to Her Character: “I don’t think she’s powerful and driven. I think she’s just someone who, like if you or I found out today that we were going to die very, very soon from a terminal disease, it was that that I had to think about. And I’m sure you have thought about death and what it would be like to have to go now. And that’s what I had to think about for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks…
…I read a lot of books about people who had been terminally ill. There was a whole genre [of those books]. I met a lot of patients who were dying. I just delved deep into the world of the experience of dying, and particularly dying before your time. I mean dying of old age, I think, is another thing. But dying as a woman in the prime of your life, as a human in the prime of your life, is a different thing. So that was where I had to delve.
I don’t think she’s powerful or heroic. She’s just someone who’s grappling with that situation and she behaves in a way that I wish if it happens to me, I would be as noble as her. You don’t know how you’re gonna behave.â€
After all that, Aronofsky couldn’t resist adding, “All this talk of death. It’s a happy ending – that’s all you need to know!â€
Rachel Weisz on Darren Aronofsky: “There are two elements. There’s the direction of acting, which is one thing. It’s performance. And then there’s a whole other thing which is the way he creates and the way he’s written the story and the way that he edits and the way that he uses style and the way that he uses visuals. That’s nothing to do with me.
In terms of what’s different about him, working with him, was in the way in which he… He’s an actor’s director, which is a pretty extraordinary thing. There aren’t many of them around. I don’t think I’ve really come across hardly any before. He rehearses with the actors for weeks before we start filming in detail, using improvisation. And then on the set he definitely pushes actors, everybody, me, Hugh, everybody, further than they’ve ever, ever been in their life before.†Aronofsky interjected with, “We had some fun times.â€
Weisz said, “We had some fun times. I mean, Hugh and I would sometimes be sitting there and we’re like crying, you know? We thought we’d given the ultimate we could ever give and he went, ‘Okay, let’s do it again immediately,' and you’d just do it again and again. I think he pushes you to the point where you’re no longer conscious of what you’re doing and for an actor, that is heaven. That’s what you want.â€
“Hugh had this one scene where he had all these boogers hanging out of his nose. It’s not in the film – amazing – he just kept going. I was at the point [thinking], ‘There’s no way I can use this,†said Aronofsky.
Darren Aronofsky on “The Fountain†as a Graphic Novel: “It’s very complicated, this whole thing, so I’ll just try to clarify it. When the film fell apart the first time I had secured the rights to make a graphic novel out of it because I was convinced that Hollywood at some point would shut down the movie. They would realize what they were making and shut down the movie. So I was like, ‘Okay, you have to make sure that we can at least make it into a graphic novel so the story gets told.'
When it did get shut down, I went to Vertigo and Karen Burger, who I sort of knew a little bit. I said, ‘Would you be interested?' She read the script and she said, ‘Okay.' She hooked me up with a guy named Kent Williams who is a great, great illustrator… He read it and wanted to be involved and he’s done about 170 original watercolors to illustrate it.
But it’s not one of those cheesy comic books where you see Rachel [Weisz] and Hugh [Jackman] running around like they do to promote movies. It’s his interpretation done simultaneous as well as before the film was cast and everything. So it’s kind of a unique situation. I don’t think it’s ever happened before where you have a graphic novel based on a screenplay, as well as a movie based on a screenplay.â€
Clarifying which screenplay serves as the basis for the graphic novel, Aronofsky said it’s rooted in the first screenplay, not the version that was shot. “It’s actually a slightly different story, as well. But they’re kind of siblings. They have the same mother, which is the screenplay, but they’re completely independent of each other. They’re not twins, they’re a brother and sister.â€
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 3:02 pm Posts: 10690 Location: Lost in Twilight's Blue
I haven't read anything in this thread, but I am excited for the movie. Is October 13th still the date?
_________________ Scared to say what is your passion, So slag it all, Bitter's in fashion, Fear of failure's all you've started, The jury is in, verdict: Retarded
Here is an outstanding review from jackabryan over at IMDB:
I just got out of a screening for the film. I don't know exactly what to say beyond the fact that it was brilliant. Aronofsky's genius is not simply in his grand and sometimes overwhelming decisions, but also lies in the smaller and more subtle ones. I don't want to give any of these decisions away, as the magic in watching the film comes from not knowing exactly what is going on. No doubt countless people will say that the film is like a puzzle, but this description does not quite fit in the same way it doesn't for 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is because a puzzle implies a goal or solution, whereas the game of these films has no real end. The solution is the puzzle if you will. Yes the film is surreal, and it does draw upon the metaphysical, but unlike so many films that also fit this description one never feels bored watching it. One can, if they are so inclined, sit back and watch The Fountain simply as a visual masterpiece.
I don't know if this film will connect with the masses. They are probably going to request a PG-13, which they will not get unless they trim some of the gore, which is not prevalent, but definitely exists. Of the seven or eight other people I saw it with no one had a negative reaction, but some were less awed than me. It is definitely hard to follow, and not so much in that "Who is that" Syriana hard to follow. More in the "what the hell does that mean" form. I would suggest that everyone sees this movie. Some will not be comfortable in being lost, but don't worry, this is the type of film you can enjoy very much while at the same time not completely understanding. I hope desperately that people go out and see this movie by the millions. This is the type of interesting self reflexive film that Hollywood needs more of. And bravo to Warner Bros. for taking a chance of this one. It really works.
The problem is that any information about story would be a spoiler, but as far as the acting goes anyone who saw Boy from Oz on Broadway won't be surprised by Hugh Jackman at all, but for everyone else whose only experiences are the x-men franchises and swordfish be prepared to be blown away. Hugh Jackman really shows his range and really gives a powerful performance. It is doubly impressice considering if he didn't believe it all the way it could have come across as silly. Jackman's ability to believe in the material makes the film work in a way I don' t think it would have had Pitt stayed with the project.
As far a Rachel Weisz she's great, but that's no surprise. She's always great and she's working with her husband, so I'm guess they already have a shorthand. The rest of the cast is fine considering how little they are in it. This really is a film about two people and Ellen Burstyn feels a little underused. Not that they should have pumped up her part, it wouldn't have worked for the film.
One more thing you'll should look out for is the beautiful use of visual symmetry, especially when aronofsky moves the camera. I was going to say I haven't seen anything like it since Kurbrick, but you know what? I'm not sure I ever saw it this much in Kubrick, and especially not when Kubrick was a in his early career. This is a film that will no doubt solidify Aronofsky as one of out great directors.
Aronofsky's Fountain Booed! By Josh Tyler: 2006-09-04
Aronofsky's Fountain Booed! Until now, there's been nothing but incredibly positive buzz coming from the direction of Darren Aronofsky's highly anticipated movie The Fountain. The trailer is phenomenal, and the handful of critics who've reviewed it have in some cases described it as one of the best films of the past decade.
All of that has suddenly changed after the movie's first official screening at the Venice Film Festival. There, a rowdy and rude Venice audience treated the film to boos, says the Associated Press. The reason? They say the movie left viewers confused.
Hold on now Fountain fans, no need to panic yet. Wait until you hear what movie these fickle festival goers cheered. By contrast, Helen Mirren's rather boorish looking The Queen received a standing ovation. That ought to tell you something about these heckler's tastes. It's the second time Mirren has played a Queen Elizabeth this year, and let's face it, no matter what sort of spin they've put on the story it's very likely to be a retread of the same costume drama crap we've seen over and over and over again in boring film after boring film.
I'm inclined to believe that this is a Venice audience with its head collectively up its ass. It sounds like bunch of crusty old fidler crabs unwilling to experience anything different, you know, the kind of audience that loves bland costume dramas. Someone has to, otherwise they'd stop making them.
We'll let you know how The Fountain is received elsewhere, but I wouldn't put too much stock in anything coming out of the Venice Film Festival.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 3:02 pm Posts: 10690 Location: Lost in Twilight's Blue
carolinapunk wrote:
Mercury wrote:
I haven't read anything in this thread, but I am excited for the movie. Is October 13th still the date?
november 22nd
I'll be there.
_________________ Scared to say what is your passion, So slag it all, Bitter's in fashion, Fear of failure's all you've started, The jury is in, verdict: Retarded
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:54 pm Posts: 12287 Location: Manguetown Gender: Male
i have a feeling that this movie will be cheeeeesy
_________________ There's just no mercy in your eyes There ain't no time to set things right And I'm afraid I've lost the fight I'm just a painful reminder Another day you leave behind
Joined: Sun Dec 05, 2004 5:47 am Posts: 27904 Location: Philadelphia Gender: Male
diaglo wrote:
Human Bass wrote:
i have a feeling that this movie will be cheeeeesy
I dunno. Aronofsky's anything but.
Agreed. Given his other 2 movies, I'd be damn surprised if he put out something cheesy. Possible, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt until I see the movie.
_________________ It's always the fallen ones who think they're always gonna save me.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:54 pm Posts: 12287 Location: Manguetown Gender: Male
i dont know...too much hype for my taste, it wouldnt hurt to be a bit humble.
_________________ There's just no mercy in your eyes There ain't no time to set things right And I'm afraid I've lost the fight I'm just a painful reminder Another day you leave behind
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