Darren Aronofsky News

As the director responsible for Stanley Herman’s most well-known work, we offer this page with info about the prolific Darren Aronofsky.

Darren Aronofsky’s Flickery Fountain

by M.T., February 24, 2005

It’s been five years since Darren Aronofsky’s bleak masterpiece Requiem for a Dream made “ass-to-ass” the catchiest movie catchphrase of Y2K. In the interim, the young auteur has been attached to a number of projects, including a new Batman flick, Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, The Watchmen (which ended up being made by Paul Greengrass) and two ambitious movies called Flicker and The Fountain.

The Fountain was all greenlit and ready to go in 2002 with a $75-million budget. Brad Pitt even grew a big-ass beard (Don’t you wish it had been a big ass-beard?). But even huge and unwieldy facial-hair couldn’t stop the director and star from having creative differences, so Pitt walked, shaved and made Troy instead.

A detailed and spoiler-filled review of The Fountain script was posted on AICN some time ago, whetting the appetites of many an Aronofsky fan. In addition to being about the most mind-fucking piece of sci-fi ever written, the script sounded damn good, but it appeared the project was dead. But then it wasn’t.

Last year, seemingly out of nowhere, Hugh Jackman (I hear he has a huge ackman) signed on in the role abandoned by Pitt, and The Fountain was back on. The script was tweaked to fit a halved budget, Rachel Weisz came aboard as the female lead, and production has supposedly begun. Or has it? I don’t think we’ll really know how real the movie is or how different it is from that original script until a release date is officially announced.

Another promising film figure from the turn of the century is Jim Uhls, the writer who adapted Fight Club for the big and silver screen. That was 1999 though, and Uhls has yet to have a second script go into production. However, it looks like his adaptation of the novel Flicker is going to change that, and Aronofsky is helming the flick. I’d have my doubts about this one actually seeing the light of day too, if not for the fact that a new paperback edition of the book has been released bearing the message, “Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture from the Director of Pi and Requiem for a Dream.”

Will we finally see a new Darren Aronofsky movie this year? Will we see two? Who knows?
But, one thing is for sure: That is a big-ass beard...

Related links...
The Fountain: Wikipedia entry | IMDB entry | Movie trailer
Flicker: Wikipedia entry | IMDB entry | Movie trailer

Editor’s note: Whether or not Stanley Herman will continue his run in Darren Aronofsky films and appear in “The Fountain” remains to be seen.

Requiem for a Dream trivia

In the DVD commentary of “Requiem for a Dream,” director Darren Aronofsky implies that Stanley Herman/Uncle Hank’s “ass-to-ass” scene was based on something he actually witnessed. In the book the particulars of Marion’s prostitution are not described.