I’m an unabashed fan of Darren Aronofsky. The guy’s brilliant, and his films so far have been great. The buzz I have been hearing on his next, The Fountain, makes me think he’ll be three for three (hey, Darren – how about inviting a fellow Brooklyn boy over to Protozoa to take a look at the latest cut?). As Warner Bros figures out a release date for that one (they’re looking at the late fall… does this mean they think it has Oscar possibility?), Aronofsky hasn’t stopped moving forward – he just signed a first look deal with Universal.
The deal includes not just straight up Universal but also Focus, the semi-indie division, and Rogue Pictures, the genre division. That’s pretty cool because I see Aronofsky as a guy who can move between all three of those divisions with ease.
What does this mean for the continued hope that he’ll pick up the reins on Watchmen, now back at Warner Bros? Beats me, but I imagine that it can’t be the best development in that regards. Also, he has a lot on his plate – the Hollywood Reporter article about the deal actually surprised me with the info that Aronofsky is working on an HBO show called Riverview, about a haunted NYC housing project (please don’t be Dark Water: The TV Series).