![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/227\/2014\/03\/noah-russellcrowe.jpg\" "\\"noah-russellcrowe\\"")
<\/a>Darren Aronofsky\u2019s Noah<\/a><\/i> was scheduled to have its world premiere in Mexico City tonight, but apparently the director popped down there a day early to speak to the public.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s not clear from the reports in Milenio<\/a> and El Universal<\/a> whether the actual film was shown yesterday, but apparently Aronofsky told the crowd that he chose Mexico City for the film\u2019s premiere because he visits that country all the time.<\/p>\n Amateur videos of Mexican interviews with Douglas Booth and Logan Lerman, who play two of Noah\u2019s sons, have already popped up on YouTube<\/a>.<\/p>\n I have not yet found any interviews of Aronofsky himself from Mexico, though NY1 did just post this profile of the director<\/a>, which looks at his life and career and includes a few video clips that are, alas, available only to Time Warner Cable subscribers.<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t much about Noah<\/i> itself in the article, though there is<\/i> an amusing anecdote about how the studio wanted Aronofsky to cut his former teacher\u2019s cameo:<\/p>\n Aronofsky calls Noah the patron saint of his creative life, because the story was the subject of a poem he wrote as a 13-year-old at Mark Twain Junior High School on Coney Island.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a magical teacher, Mrs. Vera Fried, and she asked everyone to write a poem based on peace, and it turned out it was a contest for the U.N., and I ended up winning it, and it was the first time I thought maybe, \u2018Hey, wow, maybe I can be a writer, a storyteller,'\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Aronofsky contacted Vera Fried, now retired in Florida, and invited her to the set.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018You know what, we need an extra today.\u2019 So I stuck her and made her into this one-eyed crone, and she has some speaking lines with Russell,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd when the studio was like, \u2018You know what, that shot, you should cut that shot out,\u2019 I was like, \u2018There\u2019s no f-ing way we\u2019re going to cut that shot out. That\u2019s staying in the movie.'\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The New Yorker<\/a><\/i> also has a new article on the making of Noah<\/i>, and you have to be a subscriber to access that one, too. There\u2019s lots of interesting stuff in there, though.<\/p>\n For example, it seems the studio was prepared at one point to \u201cmak[e] the film less faithful to Genesis and more faithful to people\u2019s sentimental recollections of Genesis,\u201d and even went so far as to test-screen an 86-minute version that \u201cbegan with a montage of religious imagery, ended with a Christian rock song, and skipped the whole middle\u201d. Yikes. (The finished film is about 35 minutes longer than that.)<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Variety<\/a><\/i> reports that industry insiders are predicting an opening of $35 million or more for the film when it opens March 28. The studio, however, is said to be estimating a lower opening of around $27.5 million to help manage expectations.<\/p>\n If the film meets either of those targets, it would automatically outgross all but one of Aronofsky\u2019s previous films<\/a> in North America. (The exception is Black Swan<\/a><\/i>, which grossed $107 million over the course of the 2010 awards season.)<\/p>\n It would also be one of the five best opening weekends for a film starring Russell Crowe<\/a>, and the second-biggest opening for a Bible film after The Passion of the Christ<\/a><\/i>, which grossed $83.8 million in its first weekend back in 2004.<\/p>\n Estimating the first-weekend figures for Noah<\/i> has been trickier than it would be for most major films, partly because the studios don\u2019t know how to track the churchgoing demographic, which is a substantial part of the film\u2019s intended audience but by no means the only part. Son of God<\/a><\/i> had a much better opening than expected two weekends ago, and many of those who bought tickets for that film expressed interest in seeing Noah<\/i> too, but the film has attracted its share of controversy, too.<\/p>\n Speaking of which, a representative for the censorship board in the United Arab Emirates confirmed today that the film will, in fact, be banned in that country<\/a>. Said Juma Obaid Al Leem, director of the Media Content Tracking Department at the National Media Council in that country: \u201cThe film conflicts with [many] religions. Out of respect for these religious sentiments, we are banning the film.\u201d<\/p>\n Noah<\/i> has also been banned in Qatar and Bahrain, and censors in similarly Muslim countries like Jordan, Kuwait and Egypt are expected to follow suit<\/a>.<\/p>\n The ban has the support at least one theatre owner<\/a> in Bahrain, but historian Juan Cole notes that a secular organization in Egypt called \u2018The Front for Creativity\u2019 has slammed the local Sunni institution that called on Muslim authorities to ban the film. Cole looks at this controversy in the light of recent changes to Egypt\u2019s constitution and asks, \u2018Will Russell Crowe as Noah help Egypt Separate Religion and State?<\/a>\u2019<\/p>\n Closer to home, National Religious Broadcasters head honcho Jerry A. Johnson has supplemented his previous columns on the film \u2014 in which he listed five positive things<\/a> and five negative things<\/a> about the film \u2014 with a new column for Christianity Today<\/i> in which he advocates a middle ground for Christians<\/a> between enthusiastically endorsing the film on the one hand and boycotting it on the other hand.<\/p>\n Finally, don\u2019t forget to check out the new videos that were released today, which I discussed in my previous post<\/a>. Plus, Aronofsky has tweeted a few new images from his Noah-themed art show<\/a>, and I have added them to the collection of images here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New interviews with the director and co-stars of Noah<\/i> are popping up online as the film has its world premiere in Mexico City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[54,1628,1249,1937,1957,223,63,174],"class_list":["post-15185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-darren-aronofsky","tag-douglas-booth","tag-islam","tag-jerry-johnson","tag-juan-cole","tag-logan-lerman","tag-noah-2014","tag-russell-crowe"],"yoast_head":"\n