Darren Aronofsky will do anything to keep from finishing The Fountain

A couple of days ago, word hit the internets that Darren Aronofsky and his lovely fiance, actress Rachel Weisz, are expecting their first child. And this morning, we're hearing reports that the Requiem for a Dream director has signed on to direct a May sweeps episode of ABC desert island juggernaut, Lost. But all of this begs the question: What happened to The Fountain? You know, the movie the guy has ostensibly been working on ever since Requiem completed its award season victory lap in mid-2001?

A teaser trailer for the Hugh Jackman-starring, 1000-year-spanning meta-epic hit the net in November, but no specific release date for the film, which Warner Brothers originally wanted to push through the current awards season, has yet been set. The project has been fraught with trouble from its inception. Original star Brad Pitt signed on in early 2002, but after he and Aronofsky found themselves embroiled in severe "creative differences", Pitt left to make Troy and the project was shut down (the original script, written with Pitt in mind, has since been turned into a Vertigo graphic novel). Aronofsky got the ball rolling again two years later, with a new script, a new cast (Hugh Jackman took over for Pitt, Cate Blanchett was replaced by Weisz) and a drastically reduced budget (from $75 to $40 million). But whilst production is said to have been completed months ago, The Fountain is apparently nowhere near done. It's been classified as "in post-production" on IMDb for roughly forever, and that's never a good sign.

 
The most recent interview with Aronofsy that I can find in which he actually discusses the film was posted on CHUD not long after the trailer went live last month. Speaking from the editing room, Aronofsky is still incredibly vague about the status of the film. "We’ve got a bunch of visual effects to finish up, which should get done in a month or two. And then we have to do normal things, like mixing and scoring, and that takes a bit...[W]e’re going to probably finish up the film end of February, early March. Then it becomes the big boys and big girls’ decision on when to release it. They want to take their time and see it before they decide when to release it." He admits that his editing process is slowed down by his "old-school" habit of looking at every frame before he cuts – as well as a lack of funds. But he quickly switches gears to talk about the "two weeks in Hawaii" he'll enjoy whilst working on Lost.

Look, maybe all is well, maybe these red herrings don't mean a thing. I'm just saying – If I were a Warner Brother, I'd demand a finished print before I let my guy go off on Hawaiian holiday. What do you think?