Trailer for Darren Aronofsky's, "Noah" starring Russel Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, and Anthony Hopkins

Darren Aronofsky is one of the most exciting auteurs of our time. He built indie cred with his most harrowing adaption of "Requiem For A Dream" starring Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly. He also re-ignited Mickey Rourke's career with his critically acclaimed film, "The Wrestler" but it was his last film, "Black Swan" starring Natalie Portman (who won an Oscar for her performance) that won Aronofsky an attention from a wider audience. The film grossed $329,398,046 on a budget of just $13 million. To say it was a success was an understatement, and Aronofsky was rewarded with an Oscar nomination for Best Director.

So how does one follow up with an incredible success like Black Swan? At first, Aronofsky was attached to direct the latest Wolverine film starring Hugh Jackman. However, he eventually passed up on the opportunity, and decided instead to helm, "Noah", his epic retelling of the famous bible story.

The film stars Russel Crowe as Noah himself, with Requiem For A Dream star Jennifer Connelly playing his wife. Academy Award Winner Anthony Hopkins also star, with Emma Watson and Logan Lerman rounding out the cast.

The unlike anything Aronofsky has done before. It's definitely his most epic feature (a $130 million dollar budget!!!) since his film "The Fountain", not to mention that starry cast!

In addition, the film seems to be focusing less on the bible story it's based on, and more on the psychological gloom and doom elements that Aronofsky's films are famous for. The official synopsis of the film (courtesy of IMDB) reads:

"It was a world without hope, a world with no rain and no crops, dominated by warlords and their barbarian hordes....."

In this cruel world, Noah was a good man. Seasoned fighter, mage and healer but he only wanted peace for him and his family. Yet every night, Noah was beset by visions of an endless flood, symbolizing the destruction of all life. Gradually, he began to understand the message sent him by the Creator. He had decided to punish the men and kill them until the last. But he gave Noah a last chance to preserve life on Earth..."

The trailer (provided by star Emma Watson via her Twitter account), is epic in one word. Although I'm still a little worried if Aronofsky has the chops to pull off something this huge, I am excited by it, and it'll be interesting whether it fails or succeeds (I hope for the latter, Aronofsky really is brilliant). 

You can watch the trailer here in addition to the UK cut of the trailer which is here.