Report: 'Noah' Fixated on 'Overpopulation and Environmental Degradation'

Director Darren Aronofsky initially described his vision for Noah, the big-budget interpretation of the Biblical story, as a look at the world’s first environmentalist.

A person who caught an early test screening of the film says Aronofsky’s template is still present in the movie’s rough cut.

The Hollywood Reporter’s new feature on the film, set for a March 28 release, details the behind-the-scenes wrangling between the film’s director and the studio, all with an eye on the people of faith curious to see the story on the big screen. Test screenings haven’t softened worries that spiritual audiences may not embrace what they see.

Further, THR spoke with several people who saw an early test screening in Southern California’s Orange County and who identified themselves as religious. One viewer, who declined to give his name because Paramount required him to sign a nondisclosure agreement, echoed the sentiments of others by criticizing the depiction of Noah as a “crazy, irrational, religious nut” who is fixated on modern-day problems like overpopulation and environmental degradation.

Aronofsky, an indie minded director responsible for Black Swan and The Wrestler, hated the very notion that the film undergo a test screening process. Now, with the film only weeks away, the director appears happy that his vision will make it into theaters.

My version of the film hasn’t been tested … It’s what we wrote and what was greenlighted.