Darren Aronofsky just wants to be perfect with a Black Swan musical: 'We're working on it'
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Darren Aronofsky may not be the first name that comes to mind when you hear "musical theater!" (the exclamation point is mandatory and not at all silent), but the man is a professed lover of the genre.
So much so that he's been trying to turn one of his most acclaimed films into a musical. And no, it's not Requiem for a Dream ... but, well, maybe some other time.
"We're trying to do the Black Swan musical," Aronofsky told The AV Club. "We'll see what happens. But we're working on it."
Everett Collection 'Black Swan'
Premiering in 2010, Black Swan starred Natalie Portman as a prima ballerina driven to self-destructive extremes by her ambition and pursuit of perfection. Portman won an Oscar for her tour de force performance, while the film garnered four other nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for Aronofsky. Meanwhile, Portman's costar, a scene-stealing Mila Kunis, was, as previously and eternally discussed, robbed.
Black Swan's backstage theatricality makes it kinda perfectly suited for a Broadway overhaul, sort of like A Chorus Line with less gold lamé and more mental breakdowns.
As for making a movie musical, The Whale director says he'd "love to," has "talked to many people about it," and has even "come close to a few ideas," but he's still trying to figure out how to pull it all off, citing Hamilton as an example.
"It's a very tricky thing because music from musicals is not popular music anymore. So what do you do?" Aronofsky said. "I think Hamilton was brilliant because Lin-Manuel Miranda fused hip-hop with musical music. And so he had this breakthrough that was really brilliant. But figuring that angle of it, of what the music would be, where it comes from, is the big challenge. But I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. And hopefully, one day, I could figure something out."
If Aronofsky is having trouble finding the right music, he should just write his own. "Requiem for a Dream Ballet," anyone?
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