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<\/a>Rolling Stone<\/a><\/i> has just posted an interview with Noah<\/a><\/i> director Darren Aronofsky, and one of the more surprising bits of news in there \u2014 for me, at least \u2014 is the fact that Patti Smith, the \u201cgodmother of punk<\/a>\u201d, wrote a lullaby for the film, which Russell Crowe\u2019s Noah sings to the Emma Watson character (and perhaps also to the younger version of her character<\/a>?):\n<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been friends with Patti for a long time, and I needed a lullaby for the movie because it\u2019s a big part of the story. I was telling Patti about my struggles, and it turns out she\u2019s studied lullabies and writes a lot of them. She was like, \u201cCan I please write it for you?\u201d And I said, \u201cYou\u2019re asking me that question?\u201d [Laughs<\/i>] I said \u201cabsolutely\u201d with as much of a poker face as possible. She wrote this incredible lullaby that Russell Crowe sings to Emma Watson in the movie. It\u2019s really touching and beautiful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Aronofsky also comments on the fact that this film has an edgier tone \u2014 but also takes more of a fantasy approach \u2014 than most other Bible movies:<\/p>\n
When you do the story of Noah, you definitely need a big canvas. It\u2019s one of the greatest stories ever told, and it\u2019s one people that have been telling around the entire world since before recorded history. But when we first started working on the project, we were very clear not to have sandals and robes and long white beards. The first thing I said to Russell Crowe was, \u201cI\u2019ll never shoot you on a houseboat with two giraffes standing behind you.\u201d I think the Noah story has become a story for children, but it\u2019s actually the first apocalypse story. It\u2019s a very, very<\/i> dark story. And it takes place at a time before the world had rainbows! A time when everything was miraculous. That allowed us to imagine big.<\/p>\n
For me, the pre-diluvian world has many fantastical elements. The Bible talks about these creatures called the nephilim, which were these giant angels that walked on the Earth during the time of Noah\u2019s life. It also talked about this giant beast, the Leviathan, that lived on Earth. And we\u2019re only ten generations from the Garden of Eden. It was a very magical, spiritual world \u2013 as different as, say, Middle-earth. We created this Biblical fantasy world and we wanted to make it like no world we\u2019d seen before. The scope of the effects, in bringing this world to life, required that we work on a big scale.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Commmenting on the fact that some people might find the film controversial, he adds:<\/p>\n
We tried to remain truthful to the themes and the ideas that are written, but to create a dramatic story for a 21st-century audience. I think people who are believers will see the ideas and the values that they\u2019re looking for represented in the film, and I think people who are non-believers, or come from different traditions, are going to be excited because it\u2019s not your grandmother\u2019s bible. It\u2019s something new, something big and something different.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There\u2019s more to the interview, including a hint at what the \u201ctheme\u201d of the movie \u2014 and its depiction of Noah as a character \u2014 might be all about. Check it out.<\/p>\n
Update:<\/b> Darren Aronofsky just tweeted the following picture of himself with Smith and the other musicians. Note how he mentions that the song is called \u2018Mercy Is\u2019, which hints strongly at one part of the dual theme of justice and mercy<\/a> that I noted a few months ago in my comments on an early draft of the screenplay:<\/p>\n
\nwith patti smith, @kronosquartet<\/a>, @iamclintmansell<\/a> recording the title song for #noah<\/a>, \"mercy is\": pic.twitter.com\/4zwdRXoUhf<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 darren aronofsky (@DarrenAronofsky) February 10, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n