Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Noah’ Sets Sail With Russell Crowe

After the Success of 'Black Swan' it's nice to see that Darren Aronofsky is allowed to make a big budget film of his own choosing - especially after the numerous compromises that went into his still-pretty-great film 'The Fountain'. Now we've got word that his next film has locked down its star and shooting date.

Deadline is reporting that Aronofsky's next film 'Noah' will start shooting this summer with Russell Crowe in the lead. Crowe seemed a risky leading man for a while there, as 'Robin Hood' wasn't a great success (commercially or artistically), but he's got a busy year ahead of him with 'Les Miserables' shooting currently, and now this. That he's likely to appear in similar garb to his Oscar-winning role in 'Gladiator' should help some.

Aronofsky had been attached to a number of project before this - including 'The Wolverine' - but it seems once 'Black Swan' became a huge hit for Fox Searchlight, he no longer felt the need to make a hugely commercial film to which he would have less control.

This will be a big-budget biblical epic, which is a genre that hasn't had much heat in Hollywood since the 1960's. That said, one of the biggest movies and biggest money-makers of the last ten years was Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ,' so it's likely that audiences are primed for this sort of film. If it works. As noted in the article, Steven Spielberg is also talking about doing a biblical epic, so - if this works - expect a wave of religious films.