If you've already seen or you're planning to see Darren Aronofsky's Noah you may be caught off guard by the appearance of fantastical creatures known as The Watchers. These giant rock-like creatures were left out of all marketing material by Paramount. No glimpse of them in official stills, or television spots, or even the numerous trailers. The only time that we've seen them is from a tweet that the director made months ago announcing Nick Nolte as a member of the cast. Nolte voices the lead Watcher, Samyaza. I assume the reason behind their exclusion was a preventive measure, as to not add any more controversy to a film that has already received its fair share. And, why are The Watchers potentially controversial? Well, The Watchers were first referred to in The Book of Enoch. It is an ancient Jewish religious work, that is not part of the biblical canon (extra-canonical). Who's Enoch? He's said to be the great-grandfather of Noah. The Watchers are described as 200 fallen angels (cast out of heaven) that lusted after human women. When those sons of God mated with the daughters of men their offspring became known as the Nephilim. For you biblical scholars, "Nephilim" is referred to twice in the Hebrew Bible.
In his film, Aronofsky takes quite a bit of liberties with The Watchers. They're fallen angels, but in his version of events they felt compassion for Adam and Eve and that is was sparked God's wrath upon them. Thus, God unleashes his rage by turning them into rock-like creatures. Over time humans turned on The Watchers and killed off most of Them. The ones that survived decide to help Noah build his ark.
Comic Book Movie: A few things I'd like to know about The Watchers. How much freedom did you have with the designs? How involved was Darren Aronofsky on the designs? What were the challenges of designing these creatures? Did you like the final look that the artists at ILM rendered? Lastly, were you surprised that The Watchers weren't included in any marketing material?
Justin Goby Fields: When beginning the concepts for The Watchers, we were given a lot of time to hone in on the design. Myself and several other artists came up with a very asymmetrical look for the body. Darren came through the studio often to see the designs and talk about them. Some of the challenges in coming up with them were still keeping just enough of a face to make them readable and at the same time keeping the creatures unique. Seeing ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) knock it out of the park was an amazing experience. I was very surprised to see them not in any of the marketing for the film, since they play a very important role in the film.
Concept Art by Justin Goby Fields
NOAH is a close adaptation of the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark. In a world ravaged by human sin, Noah is given a divine mission: to build an Ark to save creation from the coming flood. The screenplay was written by Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel and revised by Academy Award®-nominated screenwriter John Logan (GLADIATOR, HUGO). Scott Franklin and Aronofsky of Protozoa Pictures, along with Mary Parent of Disruption Entertainment, will produce the film. The film will be executive produced by Ari Handel (BLACK SWAN), Arnon Milchan of New Regency and Chris Brigham (INCEPTION, ARGO).
Noah is directed by Darren Aronofsky ("The Wrestler"), and stars Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, Ray Winstone, Logan Lerman, Douglas Booth and Anthony Hopkins. It floods theaters March 28th, 2014.
Source: http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/nailbiter111/news/?a=97077
0 comments:
Post a Comment