Russell Crowe as Darren Aronofsky's Noah!

by Salman Hameed

Now this may turn out to be interesting. Darren Aronofsky likes to explore the darker side of humanity (check out Black Swan or Requiem for a Dream or Pi or the more accessible, The Wrestler). So it may be perfect that he is making a Biblical epic about Noah - a story in which much of humanity dies in a deluge. The cast is superb, with Russell Crowe in the title role (I guess, you can think of it as a sequel to Master and Commander...). Already, the ark in the film looks different than people have usually imagined. Here is a picture from the set in New York:

And here is a brief description from Vulture:

The vessel is built to biblical proportions and capable of provoking awe at distances of up to 700 cubits—which is about how far away photographer Dan Wagner was when he captured this shot for New York. “To see it in person, and know there’s no CGI involved, was incredible,” he says. But Wagner wasn’t willing to suspend all disbelief: “The set decorator brought in tree stumps that weren’t there before, to give the effect that the ark was made with local lumber,” he says. “And there’s no way Noah and his sons could have built such an enormous structure themselves. That would have taken 500 years.”

The idea here is that the ark was not meant to go anywhere - but rather be a place of shelter. Okay - we'll see how it turns out. I have liked all of his films (yes, even The Fountain - for its ambition) and it will be interesting to see Aronofsky's take on this Biblical tale. While we are on the subject, here is one of my favorite New Yorker cartoons (full disclosure: I'm really allergic to mold - so this one really hits home for me):