Darren Aronofsky Wants to Redo 'The Fountain'

It's becoming clear that Darren Aronofsky is still haunted by the failure of The Fountain -- and I don't mean that as negatively as it might sound. He has a right to be bothered by it. It was a struggle to make, and a deeply personal story that was given rather shoddy treatment all around.

So it's not surprising that he wants to return to it -- but what is surprising is that he told MTV that his goal isn't an ultimate director's cut, but something akin to a remake. "It wouldn't be a 'director's cut' - more like an alternate story told with the addition of unused footage from the first go-round. This would be a complicated project on a couple of levels, though, and it's at least a few years away."

That has to be the most intriguing tease ever. Some of the missing scenes could be found in the graphic novel -- in its afterword, Aronofsky described rewriting the script to be the lean indie film we saw onscreen, which always implied that he had never shot the "extras" that were in the book. There's nothing that changes the story drastically -- the book was esentially the same, except for an extended sequence in Spain that explored the love affair between the Queen and Tomas, the political problems it was causing her, and the hold the Inqusition had on the country. It's a beautiful, incredibly romantic chapter of the book. And if he ever filmed it ... wow. I want to see it. Maybe we can at least have a Criterion edition that has the footage as an extra?

[via /film]