Darren Aronofsky Talks Noah's Ark, His R-Rated Batman, Brad Pitt Leaving 'The Fountain'

In a new interview with The Guardian, Darren Aronofsky reveals that is "several drafts" into a screenplay about Noah -- as in Noah's Ark. The script, he says, will not be a conventional biblical epic, but something quite different. "Noah was the first person to plant vineyards and drink wine and get drunk," Aronofsky says. "It's there in the Bible -- it was one of the first things he did when he reached land. There was some real survivor's guilt going on there. He's a dark, complicated character." Aronofksy says that when he was 13, he won a United Nations competition at his school for a poem about the world, as seen through Noah's eyes, and "that story has interested me ever since." Wow. As much as I'd like to see this film immediately, it sounds to be like the kind of thing that will take 15 years to get through development hell.

Also in the interview, Aronofsky opens up about his version of the Batman relaunch, saying that his version would have been much grittier and realistic than what Warner Bros. ultimately went for with Batman Begins. "It was a hard, R-rated Batman," he says. "What I pitched them was Travis Bickle meets The French Connection -- a real guy running around fighting crime. No super-powers, no villains, just corruption. For the Batmobile, I had him taking a bus engine and sticking it in a black Lincoln. Real low-tech geek stuff."

Aronofsky also talks about The Fountain, including Brad Pitt's long involvement and sudden departure from the project. "I didn't see it coming," he says about Pitt leaving. "I had been prepping in Australia for six months, on and off. They send films over there to save money, but you end up being thousands of miles apart from your team. Whispers started that might've created fear and doubt. Creatively, the film was always what it was. You either take that risk and do something that's 'out there,' or you don't." Of that statement, the Guardian writer questions whether Aronofsky is calling Pitt a 'coward.' Hmmm... Aronofsky's famous wife, actress Rachel Weisz, also comes up as a topic of discussion as does his feeling that "the planet is dying and we are dying on it." Pretty entertaining interview -- check it out.