One of the best working relationships in Hollywood has been director Darren Aronofsky and composter Clint Mansell. Launching their respective careers with Pi, the latter has churned out ideal scores for each of the former’s films — with career-best work meeting for The Fountain — and now we’ve got confirmation they are back once again for Aronofsky’s next project, Noah. While many could have guessed this, we were curious if Paramount would strong arm the director with a more studio-friendly composer, considering the size of this massive budget tentpole, but we’re ecstatic they are collaborating once again.
Speaking with The Playlist, Aronofsky called Mansell a “genius” and he puts “his heart and soul and his love into everything. And he’s unique – different from everyone else out there working. He’s able to boil down the thematic of a film into a melody, into two or three notes. He captures the whole essence of a film in two or three notes.” The helmer also went on to talk about another frequent collaborator, cinematographer Matthew Libatique. Just finishing up production a few weeks ago, Aronofsky mentioned his “incredible technical abilities,” adding “I think there’s very few people on the planet that could have done what he can do.” He went on to say, “There were nights when we had six huge cranes — the type you build skyrises with — holding up giant rigs of lights and rain rigs and the complication and sophistication of the equipment is just so technically difficult that very few people could have done that. So there are those skills, but he also has the tenderness and sensitivity to look at a performance and see how he can help it.”
As for the actual story of Noah, a few script details have leaked out, but most of us stay in the dark regarding this adaptation of the Biblical story. While Aronofsky didn’t let loose any specific details, he did talk about the thematic resonance, saying, “In the Bible the story is only a couple of pages, and the perception we have of it in the West is more as a children’s toy — an old man with a long beard and animals two by two on the boat. And there’s so much more to the story than that…there’s a lot of clues there about what the story means. So it was about trying to create a world where the story of Noah could be truthful and could take place, and make it something that could connect to a modern audience. There’s a lot of ideas in that story that actually are very, very relevant to what’s going on right now, so we tried to create a story that would ring true to people both that believe that it really happened and to those who think it’s a story.” With the film not landing for quite some time, we’ve got awhile to wait, but we wish Aronofsky the best during post-production on what’s shaking out to be an epic tale.
Starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Watson, Ray Winstone, Logan Lerman, Douglas Booth, Barry Sloane, Kevin Durand, Marton Csokas, Dakota Goyo, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Mark MArgolis and Arnar Dan, Noah arrives on March 28th, 2014.