Darren Aronofsky - Biography

Darren Aronofsky (born February 12, 1969) is an American film director, screenwriter and film producer. He attended Harvard University to study film theory and the American Film Institute to study both live-action and animation filmmaking. He won several film awards after completing his senior thesis film, "Supermarket Sweep", which went on to become a National Student Academy Award finalist.

Aronofsky's feature debut, Pi, was shot in November 1997. The low-budget, $60,000 production, starring Sean Gullette, was sold to Artisan Entertainment for $1 million, and grossed over $3 million; Aronofsky won the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and an Independent Spirit Award for best first screenplay. Aronofsky's followup, Requiem for a Dream, was based on the novel of the same name written by Hubert Selby, Jr. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Ellen Burstyn's performance. After turning down an opportunity to direct Batman Begins and writing the World War II horror film Below, Aronofsky began production on his third film, The Fountain. The film received mixed reviews and performed poorly at the box-office, but has since garnered a cult following.

With his fourth film, The Wrestler, both of the film's stars, Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei, received Academy Award nominations. Rourke also won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Actor, and Bruce Springsteen won for Best Original Song for his title song. In 2010 Aronofsky was an executive producer on the The Fighter and his fifth feature film, Black Swan, received further critical acclaim and many accolades, being nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, four Golden Globes including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, a record 12 BFCA nominations and a DGA nomination. He is currently working on development of the HBO series Hobgoblin and is set to direct the pilot.

Early life

Aronofsky was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1969 to a Jewish couple, Abraham and Charlotte Aronofsky. Abraham Aronofsky was a high school science teacher at Bushwick High School in Brooklyn.

Darren's parents would often bring him to Broadway theater performances, which sparked his keen interest in show business. During his youth he trained as a field biologist with The School for Field Studies in Kenya in 1985 and Alaska in 1986. Upon graduating from Edward R. Murrow High School in 1987, he entered Harvard University, where he took anthropology, live action film, and animation courses, eventually majoring in social anthropology and graduated from Harvard in 1991 with honors. He became seriously interested in film while attending Harvard, where he roomed with aspiring animator Dan Schrecker. After seeing his roommate's assignments, Aronofsky considered pursuing a career in animation. His senior thesis film, Supermarket Sweep, was a finalist in the 1991 Student Academy Awards. In 1992, Aronofsky received his MFA degree in directing from the AFI Conservatory, where his classmates included Scott Silver, Doug Ellin, and Mark Waters. He also won the institute's Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal.

He notes "La Dolce Vita" as one of his early influences in film.

Career

Early work

Aronofsky's debut feature, Pi (also known as π), was shot in November 1997. The film was financed entirely from $100 donations from friends and family. In return, he promised to pay each back $150 if the film made money, and they would at least get screen credit if the film lost money. Producing the film with an initial budget of $60,000, Aronofsky premiered Pi at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, where he won the Best Director award. The film itself was nominated for a special Jury Award. Artisan Entertainment bought distribution rights for $1 million. The film was released to the public later that year to critical acclaim and grossed $3,221,152.

Aronofsky followed his debut with Requiem for a Dream, a film based on Hubert Selby, Jr.'s novel of the same name. He was paid $50,000, and worked for three years with nearly the same production team as his previous film. Following the financial breakout of Pi, he was capable of hiring established stars, including Ellen Burstyn and Jared Leto, and received a budget of $3,500,000 to produce the film. Aronofsky filmed the movie in a year, and it was originally set for release in 2000, but it met with controversy in the United States, being rated NC-17 by the MPAA due to a nude sex scene. Aronofsky decided not to appeal the rating, so Artisan released the film unrated. The film went on to gross $7,390,108 worldwide. As in his previous film, Aronofsky used montages of extremely short shots, sometimes termed a hip hop montage. While an average 100-minute film has 600 to 700 cuts Requiem features more than 2,000. Split-screen is used extensively, along with extremely tight closeups. Aronofsky received acclaim for his stylish direction, and was nominated for another Independent Spirit Award, this time for Best Director. The film itself was nominated for five awards in total, winning two, for Best Actress and Cinematography. Clint Mansell's soundtrack for the film was also well-regarded, and since their first collaboration in 1996, Mansell has composed the music to every Aronofsky film. Ellen Burstyn was nominated for numerous awards, including for an Academy Award for Best Actress, and ultimately won the Independent Spirit Award.

In mid-2000, Warner Bros. hired Aronofsky to write and direct Batman: Year One, which was to be the fifth film in the Batman franchise. Aronofsky, who collaborated with Frank Miller on an unproduced script for Ronin, brought Miller to co-write Year One with him, intending to reboot the series. "[I]t's somewhat based on the comic book," Aronofsky said. "Toss out everything you can imagine about Batman! Everything! We're starting completely anew." Regular Aronofsky collaborator Matthew Libatique was set as cinematographer, and Aronofsky had also approached Christian Bale for the role of Batman. Bale later would be cast in the role for Batman Begins. However, the studio abandoned Year One in favor of Batman vs. Superman. After that project failed to develop, Aronofsky declined the opportunity to direct Batman Begins.

In March 2001, he helped write the screenplay to the horror film Below, which he also produced. In April 2001, Aronofsky entered negotiations with Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow to direct a then-untitled science fiction film, with Brad Pitt in the lead role. In June 2001, actress Cate Blanchett entered talks to join the film, which Aronofsky, wanting the title to remain secret, had given the working title of The Last Man. Production was postponed to wait for a pregnant Blanchett to give birth to her child in December 2001. Production was ultimately set for late October 2002 in Queensland and Sydney, Australia. By now officially titled The Fountain, the film had a budget of $70 million, co-financed by Warner Bros. and New Regency, which had filled the gap after Village Roadshow withdrew. Pitt left the project seven weeks before the first day of shooting, halting production. In February 2004, Warner Bros. resurrected it on a $35 million budget with Hugh Jackman in the lead role. In August, actress Rachel Weisz filled the vacancy left by Blanchett. The Fountain was released on November 22, 2006, a day before the American Thanksgiving holiday, and ultimately, grossed $15,978,422 in theaters worldwide. The film remains divisive amongst audiences and critics alike.

Breakthrough

In 2007, Aronofsky hired writer Scott Silver to develop The Fighter with him. He had approached actor Christian Bale for the film, but Aronofsky dropped out because of its similarities to The Wrestler and to work on MGM'sRoboCop remake. In July 2010, MGM scrapped the project, which one film site said Aronofsky had left due to uncertainty over the financially distressed studio's future. Aronofsky himself, when asked about the film, replied, "I think I'm still attached. I don't know. I haven't heard from anyone in a while." Later during 2007, Aronofsky said he was planning to film a movie about Noah's Ark.

Aronofsky had the idea for The Wrestler for over a decade. He hired Robert D. Siegal to turn his idea into a script. Actor Nicolas Cage entered negotiations in October 2007 to star as Randy, the film's protagonist. The following month Cage left the project, and Mickey Rourke replaced him in the lead role. Cage pulled out of the movie because Aronofsky wanted Rourke to star, Aronofsky said, stating that Cage was "a complete gentleman, and he understood that my heart was with Mickey and he stepped aside. I have so much respect for Nic Cage as an actor and I think it really could have worked with Nic but, you know, Nic was incredibly supportive of Mickey and he is old friends with Mickey and really wanted to help with this opportunity, so he pulled himself out of the race." The roughly 40-day shoot began in January 2008.

The Wrestler premiered at the 65th Venice International Film Festival. Initially flying under the radar, the film wound up winning the Golden Lion, the highest award at the world's oldest film festival. Aronofsky was only the third American director in history to win this prize. The Wrestler received great critical acclaim, and both Rourke and co-star Marisa Tomei received Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG, and BAFTA nominations for their performances. Rourke won a Golden Globe, as did Bruce Springsteen for the original song the rock star wrote for the film. The Wrestler grossed $44,674,354 worldwide on a budget of $6,000,000 making it Aronofsky's highest grossing film to that point.

Aronofsky's next film was Black Swan, which had been in development since 2001, a psychological thriller about a New York City ballerina. The film starred actress Natalie Portman, whom Aronofsky had known since 2000. She also introduced Aronofsky to Mila Kunis, who joined the cast in 2009. Aronofsky said Roman Polanski's Repulsion and The Tenant were "big influences" on the style of the film. Black Swan had its world premiere as the opening film at the 67th Venice Film Festival on October 2010. It received a standing ovation whose length Variety said made it "one of the strongest Venice openers in recent memory". Black Swan has received high praise from film critics, and received a record 12 Broadcast Film Critics Association nominations, four Independent Spirit Award nominations, four Golden Globe nominations, three SAG nominations, five Oscar Nominations and many more accolades. Aronofsky himself received a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination for Best Director. The film broke limited-release box-office records and grossed an unexpectedly high $326,847,336. On January 25, 2011, the film was nominated for five Academy Awards; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing and won one for Portman's performance. Aronofsky is serving on the 2011 Margaret Mead Film Festival's Mead Filmmaker Award Jury.

He was attached to The Wolverine which was scheduled to begin production in March 2011, but he left the project. In April 2011, it was announced that he would be the Head of the Jury at the 68th Venice International Film Festival in September of that year.

Future projects

Aronofsky will direct an HBO series pilot called Hobgoblin. Announced on June 16, 2011, the series will depict a group of magicians and con artists who use their powers of deception to defeat Hitler during WWII. Aronofsky will work on this project with Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon and his wife Ayelet Waldman. Aronofsky will also produce an upcoming horror film, XOXO, written by Mark Heyman. His next directorial film project will be his long-rumored project Noah, a re-telling of the Bible story of Noah's Ark. Thus far, the $115 million film has secured funding and distribution from New Regency and Paramount Pictures. Christian Bale had been approached for the lead, but after Bale declined, Aronofsky has reportedly begun to seek Michael Fassbender for the lead instead.

Personal life

Aronofsky began dating English actress Rachel Weisz in the summer of 2001, and in 2005 they were engaged. Their son, Henry Chance, was born on 31 May 2006 in New York City. The couple resided in the East Village in Manhattan. In November 2010, Weisz and Aronofsky announced that they had been apart for months, but remain close friends and are committed to raising their son together in New York.

Filmography

Accolades

External links