News arrived yesterday that Darren Aronofsky‘s Noah will be getting a 3D release in 65 countries including Russia, all of South America and most of continental Europe where Paramount believes the effects portion of the film will bring in the audience as opposed to the Biblical elements. Yet, the film will be released exclusively in 2D in the U.S, U.K., Australia and France, where Paramount believes the audience will respond to “the combination of the pedigree of the director and the cast and the dramatic elements of the story.”
What’s amazing about the story from The Hollywood Reporter is that nowhere does it say Paramount hopes to attract an audience based on the story. The “spectacle” of it all is what it hopes to use to attract foreign audiences, which includes “the flood, some supernatural elements and a cast of computer-generated animals.”
Making matters worse, after noting the $125+ million budget and the additional $10 million Paramount is spending for the 3D conversion, Kim Masters notes in the article, the studio “has been through a challenging process with Aronofsky, an auteur indie filmmaker, testing multiple cuts in an attempt to create a version that will lure the broadest possible audience.” While Masters writes that Paramount and Aronofsky have agreed on a cut, making a film for the “broadest possible audience” is never how I would describe a film from Aronofsky, but I’ll continue to hold out hope as we near that March 28 release date.
In the meantime, check out the latest poster for the film directly below.
