![\"Special](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/227\/2014\/10\/noah-iceland-meb7123c.jpg\")
<\/a>As far as I can tell, there have been three times<\/a> in the Academy\u2019s history when it nominated two different Bible movies for Oscars in the same year: in 1951, when Quo Vadis<\/i> and David and Bathsheba<\/i> received over a dozen nominations combined (neither film won anything); in 1959, when Ben-Hur<\/i> won a record-setting 11 awards and The Big Fisherman<\/i> also scored a few nominations; and in 1966, when arthouse favorite The Gospel According to St. Matthew<\/i> received three nominations while the big-budget film The Bible: In the Beginning\u2026<\/i> received just one.<\/p>\nCould it happen again this year? It\u2019s a sign of how strong the Bible-movie revival is right now that Oscar buzz has followed both<\/i> of the year\u2019s major entries in that genre. Ridley Scott\u2019s Exodus: Gods and Kings<\/a><\/i> comes out in December, right in the thick of awards season, and while it might not be a front-runner just yet, no one can forget how, the last time Scott made an ancient epic (i.e. Gladiator<\/i>), it won Best Picture. And then there is Darren Aronofsky\u2019s Noah<\/a><\/i>.<\/p>\n There was some<\/i> Oscar buzz<\/a> when Noah<\/i> first came out in March, but that was seven months ago. Now the film\u2019s publicists are working to reintroduce the film into the awards-season discussion \u2014 arranging interviews with key creative personnel, hosting screenings of the film followed by Q&As with the filmmakers, and so on.<\/p>\n The ball started rolling last week<\/a> when Patti Smith gave a few interviews to discuss her work on the film\u2019s theme song, \u2018Mercy Is\u2019. Then, on Friday night, Aronofsky took part in a post-screening Q&A with sound mixers Craig Henighan and Skip Lievsay.<\/p>\n Since then, Aronofsky has done award-themed interviews with Oscar pundits like Kristopher Tapley<\/a> at Hitfix and Jeffrey Wells<\/a> at Hollywood Elsewhere.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t sound like Aronofsky or anyone else expects the film to win Best Picture or anything like that. But Aronofsky has<\/i> said he hopes the Academy will recognize some of the talent who worked on it, such as production designer Mark Friedberg, who designed the film\u2019s massive Ark<\/a>, as well as cinematographer Matthew Libatique<\/a>, costume designer Mike Wilkinson, composer Clint Mansell<\/a> and others.<\/p>\n In a non-awards vein, Aronofsky also spoke to IndieWire<\/a> this week about how he is still \u201cprocessing\u201d the various reactions to his film:<\/p>\n Speaking of \u201cNoah,\u201d which was an incredible film that elicited some really strong and very mixed responses, and then went on to be this huge box office success in the U.S. and internationally, what did you learn from that experience? The reception of the film, did that go at all like you expected?<\/b><\/p>\n It was strange because I\u2019m still learning from it. And I think the studio which has done this many times is learning from it. It was a very very different experience for everyone involved. And things didn\u2019t play out in any way that was expected or seen before. And that happened with the making of the film as well as the release of the film. So I\u2019m still processing to be honest about it all. There were a lot of vocal people who had a lot of different opinions. It didn\u2019t matter if you were a believer or a non-believer or a filmgoer, the reactions were really really varied. But I think I get that on all my movies. This was just on a much bigger scale, and because when you\u2019re working on a title that has a lot of preconceptions to it, it just magnified it. But I think if you look at everything I\u2019ve done before, the reactions are always all over the map. For me that\u2019s what\u2019s exciting is having discussion.<\/p>\n A big goal for me was to take this Bible story, which really belongs \u2014 it\u2019s one of humanity\u2019s oldest stories and it belongs to not just the three main religions that subscribe to it but it belongs to everyone on the planet because it\u2019s one of the great antiquities, one of the great treasures, one of the great literary works, like \u201cUlysses,\u201d like \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d So taking that kind of source material and translating it to the big screen for the first time was to hopefully present it in a way that belonged to everyone, not just one group. And I think that suddenly a lot of the groups that had felt they had ownership of it got very disturbed by that. I think that was going to happen because the exercise itself was to say this is a mythology that belongs to everyone and anyone can take these stories and interpret it to make meaning out of their life, out of their experiences, and out of the world like we do with all myths. Sort of like you take the story of Icarus and apply it to \u201cdon\u2019t have too much hubris.\u201d There are great messages in these ancient myths that can apply to us and the reason we\u2019ve been telling these stories over and over again is because they\u2019re so rich with ideas that can apply to us.<\/p>\n Would you be inspired to return to those old stories in the Bible to adapt something else?<\/b><\/p>\n Look, I think they\u2019re such great, powerful stories and I think\u2026most of my films reference parts of the Bible<\/a> so I imagine it will be a source of inspiration for a long time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In related news, Tapley also interviewed Clint Mansell<\/a> last week. An excerpt:<\/p>\n . . . unlike \u201cBlack Swan\u201d or \u201cThe Wrestler,\u201d which had music that went in completely different directions, the \u201cNoah\u201d score feels like it\u2019s working from a similar emotional spectrum to \u201cThe Fountain.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n Yes, very much so, to be honest. I don\u2019t know whether we\u2019ll ever get an opportunity to do part three but I feel that it\u2019s there somewhere. I mean there are sort of musical phrases, whilst not the same, but are related to stuff from \u201cThe Fountain,\u201d and that was a very conscious choice, really. It felt of that world, you know? And yeah it would be cool to see if there was a third element.<\/p>\n You favor strings a lot in your compositions, I\u2019ve noticed. Why is that?<\/b><\/p>\n To me they\u2019re so emotive, really, and I think the thing with \u201cNoah\u201d was it\u2019s sort of difficult to totally place them, whereas I think if you hear piano on the film score, it has a certain thing about it. There are so many sort of textural things you can do with strings, from being emotive to being jarring to being, you know, atonal. It feels like you\u2019ve got quite a palette to play with.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Meanwhile, in a completely non<\/i>-awards-oriented context, The Wrap<\/a> spoke a couple weeks ago to Marton Csokas, a New Zealander who has appeared in several films this year including Noah<\/i>, where he played the title character\u2019s father, Lamech:<\/p>\n And what about \u201cNoah?\u201d What was it like working with Darren Aronofsky?<\/b> Finally, last week Ray Winstone discussed his career<\/a> at a BAFTA event in London, and he had this to say about his character in Noah<\/i>:<\/p>\n When it came to his villainous character Tubal-cain, matched opposite Russell Crowe in Noah<\/i>, Winstone had an interesting take. \u201cI actually thought I was the good guy in that,\u201d Winstone said. \u201cMy character wants to save the human race. Noah just wanted to save the animals.\u201d<\/p>\n As for why he finds himself attracted to playing gangsters and bad guys, Winstone had the perfect answer: \u201cThere\u2019s a bit of bad guy in all of us.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n If I find any other awards-season interviews, I will add them to this post.<\/p>\n The directive Darren Aronofsky gave to Wilkinson on the antediluvian epic starring Russell Crowe<\/strong>, Jennifer Connelly<\/strong> and Anthony Hopkins<\/strong> was: \"No robes. No sandals.\" Recalls the costume designer, \"The challenge was the inherent ambiguity about whether the film takes place 5,000 years in the past or 5,000 years into the future.\"<\/p>\n Wilkinson designed mix-and-match pieces from rough, raw textiles, a style he calls \"modern primitive.\" He says, \"For Noah<\/em>, everything was knit, woven, distressed, aged, dyed and boiled by hand.\" Utilitarian silhouettes were distinguished by touches of high-tech outdoor gear, cowl-neck scarves and black vinyl hoods. Subliminal clues of chronological ambiguity were woven in, from plastic straws to loose cassette tape, which Wilkinson felt could have survived the apocalypse.<\/p>\n Examined closely, some costumes look similar to the work of Martin Margiela<\/strong>, an avant-garde designer Wilkinson long has admired. That was intentional: \"We wanted to create something that today's audiences could relate to,\" he says.<\/p>\n There are two groups in the film with differing worldviews. Noah's nomadic, vegan survivalists colored their clothes with berry dyes, while the marauders led by Tubal-cain sported bones, skins, feathers, even horse tails to display dominance over beasts. One of Wilkinson's favorite costumes stands apart: Hopkins' Methuselah. \"We laminated a silver fabric, scraped it away, painted then cracked it. It looked as if he had become one with his costume and the costume was becoming one with his cave.\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Aronofsky also spoke to Variety<\/a><\/i> a few weeks ago about the work that cinematographer Matthew Libatique, production designer Mark Friedberg, editor Andrew Weisblum, visual effects supervisor Dan Schrecker, composer Clint Mansell and songwriter Patti Smith contributed to the film, again with an eye towards the Oscars.<\/p>\n December 1 update:<\/b> Aronofsky spoke to Gold Derby<\/a>, the awards prognostication website, about the film\u2019s Oscar-worthy merits (the production design, etc.):<\/p>\n
\nMy time was brief. We shot that in Iceland and I had a blast. Darren is very particular in the casting process, so it was quite a long journey. I didn\u2019t know what he was going to be like on set, but I found him very present and easy to work with. I didn\u2019t have anything to do with Russell [Crowe] directly but I studied some of his physical mannerisms, since I was playing his father.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"noah-michaelwilkinson\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/227\/2014\/10\/noah-michaelwilkinson-225x300.jpg\")
<\/a>November 29 update:<\/b> Noah<\/i>\u2019s Michael Wilkinson is one of the costumer designers profiled in a new Oscar-themed Hollywood Reporter<\/a><\/i> article:<\/p>\n