The failed movie that broke Darren Aronofsky’s heart: “It is like breaking up”
Darren Aronofsky tends to only make two types of movies.
The first type is grounded, character-driven dramas usually centred on an individual who belongs to a certain subculture. Think The Wrestler, Black Swan, and The Whale. The second type includes far grander visions, often featuring heavy elements of surrealism and massively complex visual sequences that undoubtedly overwhelm, and a prime example of this is his third feature film, The Fountain.
Split into three interlocked stories spanning centuries, the film explores themes of immortality, destiny, and true love. It stars Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, Aronofsky’s fiancée at the time, both of whom play multiple characters: a Spanish soldier and the Queen of Spain; a scientist and his cancer-stricken wife; and a space traveller searching for a way to resurrect his deceased lover. It’s big, it’s complicated, and it’s not for everyone, but it very nearly didn’t happen at all.
The original plan would have seen Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett head the project, which was initially given a budget of $70million to play with. Things were already on thin ice when Aronofsky decided to postpone filming for a pregnant Blanchett to give birth, and the delays kept on coming. The Fountain 1.0 suffered its biggest loss when, less than two months before shooting was about to begin, Pitt walked away.
“We started working on The Fountain in 1999. We had spent $18m, and then the lead actor quit,” Aronofsky recalled to The Guardian. “It is like breaking up. If you break up with someone after two and a half years preparation, it is hard to say if it was one thing. It wasn’t like he left the toothpaste cap off the toothpaste.”
The director turned to Russell Crowe, the future star of his film Noah, but he didn’t want to take the part. The Fountain was shut down, Blanchett was compensated for her time, and the props that had been built especially for this grand adventure were auctioned off to try and recoup some of the costs. The movie blueprint Aronofsky had been so determined to bring alive for so many years lay in tatters, but he wasn’t going to give up.
A few years on, the director found himself reattached to his passion project. Knowing that he could work with a small budget, Requiem for a Dream only cost $4.5million, he decided to try and rewrite The Fountain. He sacrificed expensive set-pieces to keep costs down and, sure enough, was given the go-ahead to revive the ship. With Pitt out of the picture, Jackman stepped in to fill the gap, while Weisz took over from Blanchett to help her beau out. Somehow, on a wing and a prayer, The Fountain finally saw the light of day in 2006.
Unfortunately, none of this hard work paid off from a financial standpoint. Even with a reduced budget, the film still bombed at the box office. Critics weren’t crazy about it. On the plus side, Jackman hailed it a “real turning point” in his career, and the movie has earned something of a cult following in the years since its release.
For Aronofsky, however, it served as an opportunity to prove his resilience and, more importantly, stick two fingers up to Brad Pitt.
