Paramount Pictures “made and (audience) tested as many as half-a-dozen of its own” edited versions of the Biblical drama “Noah,” starring Russell Crowe, according to a lengthy article in the Hollywood Reporter.
The retelling of the Noah’s Ark story of global flooding, which was produced for $125 million with New Regency Productions, is scheduled to premiere March 28.
Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan”, “Pi”) added to the core Biblical story by, for example, showing the Noah character as a drunkard and concerned with modern-day issues such as environmentalism. That controversial take prompted the studio to examine how the film would be perceived by audience testing various versions of the film while it was in production (the versions were incomplete, of course).
Paramount “vice chair Rob Moore says the studio is launching an advertising campaign designed to communicate that this film — an exploration of Noah’s emotional journey — flows in large part from Aronofsky’s imagination,” says the article by Kim Masters. A “Noah” TV commercial ran in the Super Bowl pregame.
To woo the Christian demographic, Paramount hired consultancy Grace Hill Media. The article sparked a lively reaction with over 1,200 reader comments, though a chunk is back-and-forth where some make multiple posts.
Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox opens by-the-book biblical epic “Son of God” on Feb. 28.
“Noah” is clearly a troubled movie, but on occasion troubled flicks come out all right such as “World War Z” (also at Paramount) and, famously going back, “Saturday Night Fever.”
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