Empire Online has an update on Darren Aronofsky’s Noah movie:
“It’s an adaptation of Noah’s Ark,” he exclusively reveals to Empire Online, “and I’m pretty much done with the script.” But it’s not, he insists, to be confused with the upcoming Evan Almighty. “This is not a comedy. It’s funny, because Noah’s always been done as a comedy. This is definitely more the sci-fi version. It’s the traditional Noah story, but it’s told in a serious way. More fantasy than comedy.”
Don’t hold your breath, though – sounds like Noah won’t be going before the cameras for quite some time. Says Aronofsky: “I’m probably going to do something smaller first.”
Meanwhile, Variety reports:
A metaphysical science fiction, a meta-Bollywood comedy and an animated feature about Jesus are among the new projects announced through regional German funder MFG Baden-Wuerttemberg. . . .
The animated life of Jesus from the perspective of his companions Paul, Judas and Mary Magdalene will be drafted by Andreas Hykade, who also received MFG support for a TV kids series.
“His companion . . . Paul”? Either someone got the name wrong, or the makers of this cartoon plan to get really creative. Paul (who also went by the name Saul), you may recall, is not mentioned in the Gospels at all — and when he does come up, several chapters into the Book of Acts, he starts out as an enemy of the Church.
UPDATE: I did some Googling on Hykade, and it turns out he’s been developing his Jesus film for a while — and we can definitely expect it to be “creative”! Four years ago, this was written about him in conjunction with the Student Animation Festival of Ottawa:
If there was ever an artist to inject some raw relevant fire back into animation it’s German animator, Andreas Hykade. He’s made only three independent films; two of them, We Lived in Grass (1995) and Ring of Fire (2000) have won wide international acclaim including Grand Prizes in Ottawa. Both are startlingly mature films that seek light within the darkness of desire, lust and love. Hykadeis equal parts Nick Tosches and Jerry Lee Lewis, a fiery poet who wrestleswith sin and salvation and the profound and profane. Along the way, Hykade takes us through the violent, chaotic horrors of the soul in order to find the serenity of the stars. This retrospective will feature Hykade’s independent work along with his hefty body of commissioned work including commercials, kids’ films (Tom), a multimedia show for Expo 2000, and animation for music videos (Zehn Kleine Jaegermeister for the band Toten Hosen and Blablabla for Gigi D’agostino).
Andreas Hykade, who is currently at work on a feature film called Jesus (yes, that Jesus), will be in attendance at the festival to introduce the screenings and discuss his work.
In 2004, he designed the poster for the Ottawa International Animation Festival, which said he was “currently developing Jesus (an animated feature-length film) with Martina Döcker and GAMBIT.” In that same year, animation expert John Canemaker wrote an article on Hykade that appeared in Print magazine:
JESUS, ELVIS, AND ME
Welcome to Andreas Hykade’s Bavarian nightmares of stick-figure rapists and a cartoonish crucifixion. Take that, Mel Gibson!
By John Canemaker
And finally, Wikipedia tells us:
At present, Hykade is working at his first feature-length film. During a live talk at the Bradford Animation Festival on November 17, 2006, he revealed that the film would revolve around the life of Jesus. Hykade did not reveal exactly how he would treat the project, but mentioned his admiration for the films Life of Brian, The Last Temptation of Christ and Jesus Christ Superstar.
So make of all that what you will!
JUNE 1 UPDATE: Matt Page digs up a bit more info on Hykade.
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