Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, director Susanne Bier now attached

Darren and Angelina were reportedly attached the project back in January 2010

Darren Aronofsky is ready to set sail on Noah, the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark. I’m hearing that the Black Swan director wants Russell Crowe to play the title role in the New Regency/Paramount film.

I have also heard Aronofsky wants The Grey star Liam Neeson for another role.

Crowe is rumored to be wanted for the RoboCop remake, as well. The Neeson role sounds like it could be the “villain”. Regardless, it appears a lot of details are in flux and none of this news should be taken as fact.

They’re going to start shooting in July in New York and Iceland and he says it’s really a good script. They’re really doing the story of Noah, a very unlikely subject you might think for a cutting edge fellow like Darren Aronofsky, but that’s what they’re doing. It’s going to be more likely a Fall 2013 release.

That’s the hangup right now, they haven’t cast Noah yet. But it’s got a guy in his 40s so it’s not going to be young. It’s going to be 40s. And there’s a big villain part, gotta have a villain in the story of Noah…

Jeffrey Wells on the Oscar Poker podcast, discussing a conversation with cinematographer Matthew Libatique

While not directly Aronofsky related, if Spielberg is close to pre-production (production rumored for spring 2013) on a biblical feature filmed in the “gritty” style of Saving Private Ryan, then it’s hard to know how that would affect Noah. Major studios don’t seem to have any issue with releasing two similar movies in close proximity, but hopefully it wouldn’t end up being a bane to Noah.

During his first ever live shows in the US, Grammy and Golden Globe nominated [Clint] Mansell and the Sonus Quartet will perform selections from the Last Night score, as well as performances of his other works which will include scores form Darren Aronofsky’s films and Moon on April 4 & 5 at Largo at the Coronet, Los Angeles

Mary Parent will produce Noah, Darren Aronofsky’s take on the iconic Bible tale. The project from Paramount and New Regency also is being produced by Aronofsky and Scott Franklin.

“I just dipped in to help a little bit because I’ve liked Darren’s work and we just sort of talked about it and it was fun. It’s really great,” he said… “Darren’s sensibility is completely modern and so thrilling because it’s revisionist.”

John Logan is a screenwriter (Gladiator, The Last Samurai, The Time Machine)