First Photo from the New Noah Film

Click on image to enlarge

These days most of the news about Bible Films in production goes through the Facebook page, partly because so many projects start but never really finish. That said the best place to go for updates for that kind of thing now is Peter Chattaway's new blog.

But one film looks like it really is going to happen, not least because in addition to an impressive cast, a well known director and a production company, it has also started building the ark and sending round the above shot of the work in progress. I'm guessing this means that filming hasn't started yet (although it's possible they move all the machines out of the way every so often and get a few shots of Noah making the thing.

In case you've not picked up on the various bits of information doing the rounds of the movie papers the film is being directed by Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, The Wrestler) based on a script he wrote with Ari Handel and which was then revised by John Logan (Gladiator). But the cast is pretty impressive. Russell Crowe is to take the lead role, Anthony Hopkins will play Methusaleh (the oldest man in the Bible who died aged 969 the same year as the flood if you go for all that stuff), Emma Watson as Ila Jennifer Connelly (presumably as the wife of one of Noah's three boys) and Jennifer Connelly as Naameh. If, as seems likely, Naameh is Noah's wife, then it seems Connelly is developing a nice line playing the wives of famous historical pioneers after playing Darwin'd wife in Creation. In fact it could be argued that Noah surely qualifies as a technological pioneer as well so if anyone is considering making a film about Isaac Newton, Connelly might be the actress for you.

The publicity is calling this the biggest biblical epic since The Passion of the Christ. I'm interested to know what they meant by that. The budget for The Passion was only $25 million. I suspect that were you to combine what those four actors will be paid for the film it will come in at more than that. So in that sense it will be bigger. Perhaps what they mean is that they are anticipating it taking more than The Nativity Story, but not as much as The Passion of the Christ. With the cast and crew lined up this would seem to be a reasonable hope, Crowe is still a massive star, particularly in the genre in which he became a household name, but his last film in that genre Robin Hood only made back half it's $200m budget in the US, but made an additional $215m everywhere else, making a decent profit. I'd imagine the overseas take would again be quite high, but I'm not sure Noah will make as much as Robin in either market. Still time will tell.

I'm looking forward to this film though. I've written about it several times before as well as about the various other Noah films that someone has announced were being made. In particular I hope he explores what he perceives as Noah's survivor's guilt.

More on Aronofsky's Noah

Darren Aronofsky has been taking advantage of the publicity he's been getting from Black Swan, so there have been a couple of articles recently about his plans to make a new version of the story of Noah (see my previous posts). Last week SlashFilm confirmed that not only has Aronofsky decided to make a comic book as a step to filming Noah, but also that there is also some footage on YouTube (though it says it is "private").

Movieweb are carrying a piece called "Noah Is Dirty and Not PG Says Darren Aronofsky". I couldn't get the actual page to work, but Google has it in its cache. Their article says that the project will actually be a mini-series and that it will be sci-fi adaptation of the graphic novel. Interestingly it also cites the 1976 Sunn Pictures documentary In Search of Noah's Ark as a source of inspiration, one that I've never seen, but that I know Peter Chattaway has fond memories of.

More on Noah's Ark

Following on from Friday's post about Noah's Ark there's also an official website and blog for the film. There's not a great amount of information up there at the moment, apart from the following synopsis:

To build an ark for all the animals, God chose Noah. To lead them to it, God chose... Gilbert?!?

Gilbert the Groundhog loves Caroline with all his heart. That's too bad for him, because Caroline plans to marry into the upper crust of groundhog society, and Gilbert dwells in the deepest, dingiest tunnels a groundhog can dig. That is, until they start to flood!

When a pair of very special doves warns Gilbert of the troubles to come, nobody in the burrow will listen. To get Caroline away from those groundhog snobs and on the road to safety, Gilbert tells a teeny tiny lie. Of course, lies don't stay little for long! Two-by-two, a menagerie of kooky, crazy animals begins to follow them. Day-by-day, the journey grows more perilous. Pretty soon, Gilbert finds himself leading a rowdy zoo of birds and beasts and all kinds of critters through deserts and jungles and much, much worse...

...all because he told a lie. Now, the storm is come. The waters are rising. All these animals want is to run wild and free, but soon there won’t be any place left to run to. Gilbert had better quit digging himself into a hole, because it takes a hero to lead his friends all the way to Noah's Ark!

Two thoughts spring immediately to mind. Firstly, If the hero is Gilbert the Groundhog, then who is the pink hippo in the above photo (taken from the website's only image at the time of writing)? Secondly, it seems a little strange to me that this synopsis suggests that lying is good and God's plan. It could be argued that there is some kind of biblical precedent for this, for example the Jacob story, but this kind of message is likely to repel the kind of faith groups who would otherwise be those most likely to watch a film based on the Hebrew Bible.

Meanwhile a growing number of articles have been posted at the blog. Some of these are fairly trivial such as the Dove foundation's report on the script - it praises "the theme of believing in one's self". How very original. (That's for Dove not the filmmakers / bloggers by the way)

On the other hand there are a number of interesting discussions of the film's approach to the Bible or examines the medium of animation (such as Sculpting in Virtual Space). It's good to see this level of discussion about a film at this stage in its production, and I'd encourage them to keep it up.

Rising India to Fund Noah's Ark

There are so many films about Noah rumoured to be on the way that news about any one of them sends me scurrying thorugh my previous posts on Noah films to try and work out which is the one that is being discusses. Anyway, the latest ark story to emerge on the pages of Variety concerns the Bob Funk / Unified pictures film Noah's Ark. The story simply says that US based company Rising India will be funding it to the tune of $40 million. Whether this is on top of or instead of previous financiers remains to be seen. In the current financial climate though it's encouraging to see companies still financing these movies as I suspect that many of the films I have previously mentioned as being in production will never get made as a result of it.

Here's the latest list anyway:

Not the End of the World - Illuminated Films

Unnamed Noah Film - Darren Aronofsky

Sold Out! - Uri Paster

Aardvark Art's Ark - Warner Bros. / Casey Affleck (above)

The Flood - Promenade Pictures' sequel to The Ten Commandments (2007)

Rock the Boat - French animation (Gaumont)

Noah's Ark - Unified Pictures / Bob Funk

El Arca - Patagonik (Argentina)

The Missing Lynx - Kandor Graphics

Thanks to Peter Chattway for the latest addition.

Noah's Ark Goes 3D

There are numerous films about Noah rumoured to be in production, though I suspect not many of them will make it through the credit crunch. One of the more likely looking contenders is the prequel to 2007's animated The Ten Commandments, part of the Epic Stories of the Bible series from Promenade Pictures.

Anyway, Variety has just announced that the film will be a "stereoscopic 3-D toon" to be made by Magic Lantern. Thanks to Peter Chattaway for that piece of news. No news on a release date on this on any of these sites. Last year Promenade CEO Cindy Bond announced that it would be Easter 2009 (!) so things have obviously been somewhat delayed.

More on Aronofsky's Noah Film

There's a little more news on Darren Aronofsky's plans for his Noah film. Aronofsky purportedly finished the script back in September, he's now revealed that he's planning to release it first as a graphic novel. Aronofsky is interviewed by Rope of Silicon, and talks about the film briefly:

RoS: Looking forward to the projects you have coming up, what is the situation with the Noah project?

DA: We have a script actually, it is a script but there is more work to do. We’re actually going to do a graphic novel of it right now, we’re just starting it, and we’re hiring a writer.

RoS: And are you shopping the script around to studios and actors…?

DA: There is an actor attached, but I’m not going to say who, but he’s a big movie star.

RoS: Steve Carell… [joking]

DA: [With a smile] Yeah, exactly… Eventually we’ll set it up, but we’re just figuring it out. It’s a very difficult film to get made and we’re slowly working on it to get it put together.

I wonder if part of the thinking behind the graphic novel idea is its similarity to storyboarding? And, of course, it's also a cheap way to test out the market for such a film, whilst simultaneously building that market up.

The September interview with /film is also contains slightly odd quotation:

It's the end of the world and it's the second most famous ship after the Titanic... I think it's really timely because it's about environmental apocalypse which is the biggest theme, for me, right now for what's going on on this planet. So I think it's got these big, big themes that connect with us. Noah was the first environmentalist. He's a really interesting character.

Second most famous?

Noah Films Sail into Difficult Waters

There's been a lot of talk about Noah films round here recently, but as the numbers of movies based on the story of the ark got higher and higher, so it became more and more inevitable that some of them would begin to falter. I'm surprised, though, that one of the apparent strugglers is Gaumont's Rock the Boat. I say "apparent" because whilst a recent Variety article suggested Rock the Boat had been delayed because of financial difficulties, they were keen to stress it was based on "rumours". There's little info at the Gaumont website, other than a brief index page and the image I found last time I visited the site seems to have been replaced by the one above.

Secondly, FilmChat pieces together the evidence from two contrasting stories in Variety and Hollywood Reporter regarding The Flood (Promenade Pictures). It appears that Promenade's president and COO, Cindy Bond, has formed another production company called Mission Pictures, so that both companies will be producing this film. I also note that both publications are now calling this film Noah's Ark: The New Beginning - a possibility raised during FilmChat's interview with Bond back in February.

Who Built the Ark? Noah, Noah, Noah, Noah, Noah, Noah, Noah...

Plans for yet another Noah film have been announced by Illuminated Films (see the "News" section). This time it's Geraldine McCaughrean's Whitbread award-winning novel "Not the End of the World".

It sounds like this one might be a little more controversial than most of the other eight Noah films that are currently in production. The book's synopsis explains how the story is told through the eyes of Noah's fictional daughter, Timna who at one point "watches on in horror as her friends and neighbours are washed, indeed sometimes pushed, away to their deaths". She also somehow sets "in motion a chain of events that will drastically affect God's plan".

This brings the number of Noah films which have recently gone into commission to nine (not counting Polish film Ark, or flms like The Year One, and The God Complex where the Noah story is only part of the overall narrative). Here's the complete list:

Not the End of the World - Illuminated Films

Unnamed Noah Film - Darren Aronofsky

Sold Out! - Uri Paster

Aardvark Art's Ark - Warner Bros. / Casey Affleck (above)

The Flood - Promenade Pictures' sequel to The Ten Commandments (2007)

Rock the Boat - French animation (Gaumont)

Noah's Ark - Unified Pictures / Bob Funk

El Arca - Patagonik (Argentina)

The Missing Lynx - Kandor Graphics

Thanks to Peter Chattway for the latest addition.

Noah Films Still Flooding In

Peter Chattaway links to the Jerusalem Post's article about Israeli director Uri Paster (King of Beggars). In it they discuss his move to Hollywood and his first project Sold Out! - a contemporary musical on the story of Noah:

Noah is presented as history's first stage director, and he puts the animals through auditions before they are assigned places on the ark, or rejected.

The cast of characters gives new meaning to the word multiethnic, reflecting the roles of Noah's three sons - Shem, Ham and Japheth - as the forefathers of all mankind. And mankind, in this case, includes an Algerian musician, a Reform rabbi, a black rapper, a hassidic tenor, a Hungarian stripper, a Chinese opera singer, a French pop vocalist, Jewish kids and, for good measure, a bisexual producer. Everyone, though, speaks English. The ark itself becomes the setting for a Broadway show, with Noah's wife as the producer.

By my count this is the eighth film about Noah to go into production in recent years (not counting last year's Evan Almighty which has already been released). Back at the end of July FilmChat also carried the story that Warner Bros. were working on an animated film about Noah's Ark along with Casey Affleck (pictured above in Vanity Fair's re-shot still from Hitchcock's Lifeboat. According to The Hollywood Reporter, that film, Aardvark Art, is about "a group of animals who are stranded when they are not chosen to go on Noah's Ark".

Here's the complete list of all eight:

Unnamed Noah Film - Darren Aronofsky

Sold Out! - Uri Paster (above)

Aardvark Art - Warner Bros. / Casey Affleck (above)

The Flood - Promenade Pictures' sequel to The Ten Commandments (2007)

Rock the Boat - French animation (Gaumont)

Noah's Ark - Unified Pictures / Bob Funk

El Arca - Patagonik (Argentina)

The Missing Lynx - Kandor Graphics

As well as omitting Evan Almighty, I've also excluded the somewhat tangential Polish film Ark which played in Vancouver amongst other places at the end of last year.

More on Darren Aronofsky's Noah

/film posted their interview Darren Aronofsky yesterday, and towards the end of their time together they asked him about his Noah project that I discussed back in May last year. Whilst his answer isn't quite as interesting as it was in his previous interview in The Guardian it's nice to heard he's still passionate about the project. Here's what he had to say:

Peter Sciretta: Who wrote it?
Darren Aronofsky: I wrote it. Me and Ari Handel, the guy who worked on the Fountain. It’s a great script and it’s HUGE. And we’re starting to feel out talent. And then we’ll probably try and set it up…
Peter Sciretta: So this isn’t something you can make for six million dollars?
Darren Aronofsky: No, this is big. I mean, Look… It’s the end of the world and it’s the second most famous ship after the Titanic. So I’m not sure why any studio won’t want to make it.
Peter Sciretta: You would hope so.?
Darren Aronofsky: Yeah, I would hope so. It’s a really cool project and I think it’s really timely because it’s about environmental apocalypse which is the biggest theme, for me, right now for what’s going on on this planet. So I think it’s got these big, big themes that connect with us. Noah was the first environmentalist. He’s a really interesting character. Hopefully they’ll let me make it.

That part of the interview has apparently gained such a lot of interest that Sciretta posted a follow-up piece just on Aronofsky's Noah in which he adds this to what we already know:

The idea originated ten years ago, even before Pi, when Aronofsky saw a museum exhibit. But the director’s fascination with Noah’s Ark began when he was only 13-years-old. Aronofsky won a United Nations poetry competition at his Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn school. The poem was about the end of the world as seen through the eyes of Noah. When Brad Pitt abruptly left The Fountain just weeks before principal photography, Aronofsky took some time off and began to develop a variety of different projects, one of them being the Noah screenplay.

Obviously I'll be reporting on this one as it (hopefully) progresses. Meanwhile, you can read all of the posts I've made on films about Noah here. Incidentally the image above is from Jacopo Bassano's 1574 painting "Noah's Sacrifice" which seems kind of fitting given Aronofsky's earlier comments about Noah's "survivor's guilt".

Mark Pirro on The God Complex

Following on from Friday's post on The God Complex I've been in contact with the film's director Mark Pirro. The conversation has been fairly interesting and he kindly agreed to let me post some of it up here.

===================
Page: How far through production are you and how do your films tend to get released?
Pirro: We have been shooting this for almost a year. We plan on a 2009 release. This is my 8th feature film and they usually go directly to cable or DVD in the U.S. and sometimes go theatrical overseas. Every film has a different release pattern. Sometimes I license them to a distributor, other times I self-distribute. We live in an internet age and distribution is not as big a deal these days. Our last film played midnights in a theatre in Hollywood before going on to DVD sales.

Page: Are you aware of The Real Old Testament? I guess they have a similar approach to you, although they managed to get Ted from Scrubs
Pirro: I hadn't heard of The Real Old Testament, although I am aware of Harold Ramis' upcoming film, Year One. I guess this will be the era of religious parodies.

Page: I’ve mentioned Year One a few times, but I’m not sure it will really deliver. I suspect it’s probably too mainstream to take too many risks, and, for me, that tends to be where things get interesting.
Pirro: My concern about "Year One," is that it is produced by Judd Apatow, who has made 40 Year Old Virgin, Superbad, Knocked Up, etc. He's not afraid to push the envelope when it comes to aggressive humor. Neither are we. Although I know he won't take his comedy as far out as we are, but I think his film will be more cutting edge than most of mainstream America is used to. And since we're both using the bible as our original source material, I know some of our obvious jokes, character flaws, and impossible situations will cross paths (I was a little nervous about Evan Almighty for the same reasons). Unfortunately, that's the film business.Page:I’ve not watched many (if any) of Apatow’s movies, but from what I’ve heard whilst they tend to push things in certain areas, their values are also marked by a certain conservatism, e.g. Christianity Today noted that Knocked Up was "crass" but also considered it "pro-life".
Pirro: Like everything else in Christianity, it's completely subject to interpretation. There is an 'anti-life' bias in the film as well. It just depends on who's watching it what what they bring to the table. Same thing with 40 Year Old Virgin. I believe Apatow, like myself, is the kind of filmmaker that likes to entertain, without necessarily giving messages. If people take away a certain message, that's fine, but I don't believe that's the initial intent of the filmmaker.

Page: My (hugely uninformed) hunch is that Year One will have its gross out factor, but won’t actually do much to challenge the morality in the original stories.
Pirro: If Apatow, like Harold Ramis - the director - think the way I believe they do, this will be a no holes barred outright satire. I know that our film's segments will cross paths. There are obvious crossovers with Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, Noah and the ark and there's only so much 'original' humor one can pull from the mythology without being redundant. My fear is exactly 'how much' of the humor will be similar? For that, we'll just have to wait and see. At least I don't think they'll be touching the Jesus story, so we may have that over them.
Page: Your picture of dead animals and people after the flood (above) challenges and subverts the idea that these stories are about a God of love.
Pirro: Well, basically we take the more or less better known stories in the Bible and relay them with a more logical and satirical approach. We analyze the stories with what I call the 'square circle' syndrome. A square circle is an impossibility as defined by what constitutes a square and what constitutes a circle. One can't be the other. The god of our movie falls into that category (as one might argue is also true with the Biblical God). A being that knows everything can not be angered, surprised, vengeful, maniacal, jealous or imperfect. Those are all human traits. The God of the Bible is all that and so is the god of our movie. So in our film, our god - who is angry, vengeful, maniacal, jealous and imperfect - always tries to get things right to impress his girlfriend, but through the course of events and not very well thought out plans, things always go awry. He is always arguing with his girlfriend about how he knows all, and she argues back that if he knows all, he would have known that the first go around (before Noah) would have been a failure. He would have known that Adam and Eve would disobey him. He would have known that Abraham would be willing to sacrifice his son. His reply to her is, "Hey, don't question me." I'm god, I know all. She then socks him in the mouth and says, "Why didn't you duck?" Another point in the film she (being the voice of reason) asks why he lets people he loves suffer? He replies, "I'm God, it's what I do."
===========
I think that gives a fairly good idea of how this film will pan out. I imagine that many would find this offensive were they to somehow stumble across it, but I'd also hope that it will challenge others to re-think their approach to the Old Testament Stories. I don't subscribe to the view that the brutality of these stories discounts the possibility of a loving God. However, I do think that until you've been realised just how horrific they are in places you've never really read them and thus are unlikely to have truly considered precisely how God reveals himself through them. It would be nice if interpreting the Bible was as simple as "God said it. I believe it. That settles it", but if we truly believe in a God of love then, in Pirro's words, such a simple approach just gives us a 'square circle'.

The God Complex

I just came across the website for The God Complex - an irreverent comedy that "takes the silliest stories from the Bible and makes them...well...just a little sillier". Although it's still in production there are a number of stills and several clips available to view. If you're bothered by bad language then these probably aren't the clips for you.

It looks like the film mainly focusses on Genesis, though it also promises footage from today "where Jesus walks among us disguised as a mild mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper", and whilst it prides itself on being low budget there's at least one nifty special effect. All in all it looks like it will have a lot in common with The Real Old Testament.

I'm going to contact the filmmakers to see if I can get more information, and I'll report back if so.

Ark (Poland 2007)

Last month I tried to compile a list of films about Noah, which quickly became monstrous, so I never got around to completing the list and posting it up (although I might do one day). One of the films on the 'list' that did catch my eye was the polish film The Ark by Grzegorz Jonkajtys and Marcin Kobylecki. Here's the official website's synopsis:

An unknown virus has destroyed almost the entire human population.

Oblivious to the true nature of the disease, the only remaining survivors escape to the sea. In great ships they set off in search of uninhabited land. So begins the exodus, led by one man...

It just so happens that it's due to play in Vancouver on the 7th November, or at least so claims Ron Reed who has the following blurb taken from the lucky cinema's mail out:

The Ark: inspiration, experimentation and production
with Grzegorz Jonkajtys, Director & Lead Animator and Marcin Kobylecki, Producer
Nov 7, 7:30 - Tickets are $15 in advance, $20/$15 non-members/members at the door.

Please join us for this special evening with the creators of The Ark, this year’s winner of the Best of Show from SIGGRAPH’s Electronic Theater program. The presenters will talk about their inspiration, concept development and creative influences, then go into a breakdown of production on this 8 minute film that combines 3D computer graphics with practical sets.

Grzegorz Jonkajtys
Animation Artist, Director. Graduated from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He received an honourable mention from the dean of the Academy. His debut short animated film entitled Mantis (2001) gained widespread acclaim winning numerous prizes at Polish as well as international film festivals. For many years now he has been working in an American company, CafeFX. It specializes in special effects for big Hollywood productions. He took part in creating special effects to such films as The League of Gentlemen, Gothika, Hellboy, Sin City or (sic.) Pan's Labyrinth. At the moment Grzegorz Jonkajtys has completed work on his second animated film entitled Ark.

Marcin Kobylecki
Executive Producer at Platige Image the biggest CG animation and special effects studio in Poland. He is the Executive Producer of the short films The Cathedral, Fallen Art.

If you would like to pick up your online order early, the Vancity Theatre box office will be open for will call Fri Nov 2 - Mon Nov 5, 7:15pm-8:30pm.

Amongst the features available from the official website are two trailers and a gallery.

There are also numerous articles on the pair behind this in various animation journals such as FX Guide and the CG Society of Digital Artists.

Noah film to Rock the Boat

French Production company Gaumont have announced plans to release a 3D animated film about Noah in the run up to Christmas 2009.

According to Variety it'll be a $35 million production by Franck Chorot with first timers Andre Bessy and Fabien Suarez co-directing the latter's script. Also involved are French effects company MacGuff Ligne.

This is one of a number of Noah films that have either been recently released, or are in production (including El Arca which I somehow missed). It's funny how these things go. We're currently coming to the end of a run of 5 Moses films in 18 months, so now it looks like it's Noah's turn.

HT to Peter Chattaway

Evan Almighty DVD Release. Plus! Additional Commentary

In the US, Evan Almighty has been out on DVD for a week now, but according to amazon.co.uk it's not due for release over here until November the 26th. I guess this mirrors the film's staggered theatrical release, but it's still kind of strange.

Anyway, it seems that this release is fairly extras-lite, no doubt preparing the way for a special edition some time next year, but those of you who can't wait might want to check out Peter Chattaway's audio commentary which is available to download for free.

Another Animated Noah Film in the Works?

I got back from Morocco last night, and had to prepare to go to London first thing this morning, so normal service will resume around here shortly. Meanwhile, Peter Chattaway picked up a Variety story about a potential CGI Noah film.

Indie financer Unified Pictures (Bob Funk) is launching development of $35 million CG-animated feature Noah’s Ark - to be told from the point of view of the animals in the ark.

Unified has signed Philip LaZebnik (The Prince of Egypt, Mulan, Pocahontas) to script. The shingle’s relying on its private financing, and ElectroAge has already started on the animation.

Unified topper Keith Kjarval said improvements in CG technology will make it possible to give Ark the look and feel of a studio pic. He anticipates that the toon will be completed over the next two years.

This is just the latest in a series of Noah films, several of which have been animated. And as Peter goes on to mention there are supposedly another 3 animated Noah's Ark films in production (not to mention Darren Aronofsky, so who knows which of them will actually happen.

Anyway, given the release of Evan Almighty earlier in the year, I was surprised to see that I'd not yet made a list of Noah films, so here it is:

Noah's Ark (1909)
The Deluge (1911)
The Bible: Noah (1921) [Part of series]
Noah's Ark (1928)
Father Noah's Ark (1933)
Green Pastures (1936)
Noah's Ark (1959)
Noah (1964) [Belgian]
The Bible: In the Beginning (1966)
In Search of Noah's Ark (1976) [Documentary]
Greatest Heroes of the Bible: The Story of Noah (1976)
Genesis: Creation and the Flood (1994)
Testament: Creation and Flood (1996)
Noah's Ark (1999) [TV}
Fantasia 2000 (1999)
Evan Almighty (2007)

There are a few other minor films/cartoons showing on the IMDB, so I may add them in in the next few days.

Testament: The Bible in Animation: Creation and the Flood

Evan Almighty is released in the UK today so I thought it was about time I added another post to my series on Noah films.

Creation and Flood is the first entry in the generally excellent Testament: Bible in Animation series by S4C (Wales) and Christmas Films (Russia). Like the similarly titled Bible Collection film Genesis: Creation and Flood (1994) the story of the creation of the world is told by Noah. The creation part of the story and the Noah part of the story use two different styles of animation which not only helps the viewer differentiate between the two interwoven stories, but also split the workload between S4C and Christmas Films. The creation part of the story was created by Christmas films using paint on glass whereas the story of the flood was filmed by S4C using cell animation.

The result is an interesting mix of animation styles although the difference between them is not quite as marked as in The Miracle Maker. As a result it suggests that the two events reflect only marginally different layers of reality.

Unfortunately, this is not one of the stronger entries in the Testament series, with the Noah section being particularly disappointing. There's very little sense of wonder, or desperation in this tale. By cramming it into a half of a thirty minute section there's very little space to develop the story - it never feels like 120 days aboard the ark - that said the similarly-lengthed Disney films are definitely more successful in this regard. Those films also established a trend in animated versions of the Noah story of skipping past the flood's death toll. Here there is at least some mention of it, but once the rains start to fall the rest of humanity is swiftly forgotten.

The creation section of the film is far more successful. The animation is far more impressionistic, at least in places, which makes for more interesting viewing. In particular, the creation of Adam of Eve is handled with great skill. The single figure of Adam somersaults across the screen but appears to land upside down. It quickly becomes apparent that this is a reflection, only for a ripple to destroy the image. When it reforms, the image is different. The camera lifts up to see that Adam has now been joined by Eve.

There's also an interesting treatment of The Fall. This is also very impressionistic. Although the animation is more solid the Genesis account is proceeded by an account of the fall of Satan based on Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. When Satan does appear in the Garden of Eden, he alternates his physical form between a legged serpent and a floating mask.

Perhaps the most significant problem is that the way in which the creation and fall story is introduced disrupts the flow of the tale of Noah. This, combined with the lacklustre presentation of that story, means that by the end of the film, any interest in that part of the narrative has dissipated. Fortunately the Testament series survived its downbeat beginning and went on to achieve greater things.

Noah's Ark (1999)

The next of the films about Noah that I'd like to look at it Noah's Ark (1999), which, at almost three hours, is the longest screen treatment of the story of the flood. That said, it feels much, much longer. In fact, the three hours pass so slowly that you begin to wonder if the 40 days of rain may have actually passed far more quickly.

As a TV film it was unlikely ever to be a classic, but the movie's current 3.6 rating on the IMDb is, perhaps, not even as damning as it deserves.

The film's sole strength seems to be that it's willing to take risks, be innovative and creative and that it's free to deviate from the original story. Unfortunately, these liberties also form the film's biggest weaknesses. The start of the story sees Noah spending time with Lot (his great, great grandson according to Genesis) in Sodom and Gomorrah. They and their families narrowly escape getting buried in burning sulphur as God opts for a piping hot appetizer to accompany his revenge (which is, of course, best served cold - ba dum cha!).

Unfortunately, things don't quite work out as God's planned them. We never discover whether the flood was localised or global, but it seems even a number of Noah's neighbours manage to escape. Did I mention that they have become proto-techno-pirates? To borrow from my comments elsewhere about this monstrosity...

Its attempt to weave futuristic elements into a pre-historic myth backfires more spectacularly than a seventies Robin Reliant. The bizarre futuristic elements evoke Kevin Costner’s mega flop Waterworld. Had that film been a success, this, at least, could be called a "cheap cash in". But as Waterworld was actually a complete commercial disaster, so even that cannot have been the driving factor. Similarly terrible is a ludicrous attempt to pass off an idiotic amalgamation of the stories of Lot and Noah with the ridiculous off-hand comment that “by the time they finish the story of Sodom and Gomorrah they will probably say we weren't even there."

Whilst none of the cast are major stars, Jon Voight, F. Murray Abraham and James Coburn are all well known actors with reasonably good reputations. So what, on earth, possessed them to get on board with this stinker? As it happens they are unable to rise above the dross that surrounds them. The only plus point which they'll have been able to take away from the experience is that at least they were not as irritating as the actors playing Shem Ham, Japheth and their wives.

So all in all, if you're looking for a film about Noah that has even one of the qualities of being interesting, inspiring, challenging, biblically faithful, well acted, deftly scripted, humorous, beautiful, complex, entertaining, or even just plain watchable, then you're strongly advised to skip this one. And if all you're after is a tediously long, tacky, overblown film about a big boat, a lot of water and a terrible disaster then you'd probably be better off re-watching Titanic.

Noah's Ark (1959)

I'm seeing Evan Almighty on Wednesday so I figured it was about time I made some more entries in my Films About Noah series.

Noah's Ark is the 2nd of Disney's three takes on this story (the others being Father Noah's Ark (1933) and the "Pomp and Circumstance" sequence from Fantasia 2000 (1999), and with a running time of around 20 minutes it's the most extensive of the three. In contrast to the other two films it's made with stop motion animation using every objects such as pipe cleaners, corks and thimbles as well as the fabrics that predominate.

It has a number of things in common with one or both of those other films. Firstly, there is a great deal of humour in all three films. Here we see the usual slapstick escapades from Noah and his sons as they construct the ark. There are also jokes based on the distinctive characteristics of the various animals again. Here we have a penguin wearing a morning coat, and minks dressed in mink.

Another similarity is that film is also largely accompanied by music, the music here is perhaps the most "kidsy", with simple harmonies and a modernish feel. Some of the music here is used to provide entertainment whilst on board the ark. In this version of the film, unfortunately, this sequence goes off on tangent getting overly concerned with the marital strife between Mr and Mrs Hippo.

Another way that this short resembles the others is with the way it handles the biblical material. None of the three films really deal with this story as the outworking of God's judgement. The people who are left behind to drown never enter the picture, and whilst all three films delight in the animals who survive the flood there's no mention of those that didn't make it.

Finally, Shem Ham and Japheth are again present and, as with the first film whilst they all have different coloured hair, they share their colouring with their spouses.

There are lots of novelties in this film as well, however. For a start the animation itself is resourceful and creative. The use of everyday objects gives it an endearing quality, which draws attention to the medium as well as the story.

There are a couple of very interesting shots in this film as well. The film starts and ends with God-shots. The first is a fairly conventional movie God shot – an overhead view of the land in which Noah lives – near enough for it to be clear what it is, but far enough away so that it couldn't be the point of view of any other character. This shot is confirmed as being God's point of view when it is reproduced immediately after God has finished giving Noah his mission. The closing God shot is entirely different. It's a view of the whole globe.

The use of these shots indicate God's presence in this film which is perhaps more prevalent here than in the other two – particularly as we hear God give Noah his mission. There's also a few interesting dissolves, notably during the montage in which the ark is built.

One of the other strengths of this film are the various backgrounds it uses. These nicely complement the action whilst also emphasising the different locations. The area where Noah lives is mainly shot against a plain blue background, and several of the shots (including the opening ones are shot with blue filters). But once Noah and his sons go out to gather the animals the background become much more diverse and interesting.

Chattaway on Noah Films

I've been meaning to post this all week, but I've been a bit pushed for time, and now most people have probably seen this already. Nevertheless, for those of you who haven't yet had the pleasure, then BC Christian News has published a brief article by Peter Chattaway on film portrayals of Noah. It's part of BCN's look at Evan Almighty.

Peter discusses the following films:

Noah's Ark (1928)
Father Noah's Ark (1933)
Green Pastures (1936)
Noah's Ark (1959)
The Bible: In the Beginning (1966)
In Search of Noah's Ark (1976)
Genesis: Creation and the Flood (1994)
Noah's Ark (1999)
Fantasia 2000 (1999)

I've seen all of these except In Search of Noah's Ark (1976), which, to be honest doesn't tempt me much. I'll be writing about the ones I've not yet covered on this site (i.e. those not linked to above) soon, although I have reflected on the penultimate two films (plus one or two others) in my article on Genesis films.

There are two films that Peter didn't discuss. One is from the Testament: The Bible in Animation series. It's the only one of that series I've yet to see, but as I recently bought a copy on DVD I'll be blogging it shortly. The other is from the 1970s Greatest Heroes of the Bible series called The Story of Noah. That's one I've not seen, although judging by the others in the series it's unlikely to be either well produced or particularly insightful.

Peter's also had his article on Evan Almighty director Tom Shadyac published in the same issue of BCN.