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Now Playing: The Fountain and Love for Darren Aronofsky
Shut fuck up! My secret celebrity boyfriend's movie is starting to get good buzz. Read up.

Comic-Con 2005: The Fountain Trailer First Look
Con attendees get a glimpse of Darren Aronofsky's next.

July 15, 2005 - We love Darren Aronofsky. With just two features under his belt (Pi and Requiem for the Dream), he has established himself as an impressive visual stylist with slavish devotion to story and concept. For the past six years, he has been toiling away on what he calls his "personal passion," the amazing looking The Fountain.

The film has had a rocky start, almost lifting off in 2002 with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchet in the title roles, but was shelved due to the good ol' standby: "creative differences." Aronofksy seems to have found the perfect cast though with Hugh Jackman as Tom and Rachel Weisz as Izzi. Praise for Jackman has been effusive. Says Aronofksy, "You haven't seen anything from Hugh Jackman yet."

Set in three time periods, 1500AD, 2000AD, and 2500AD, the film follows Tom and Izzi throughout history as they experience love over 1000 years, gaining strength presumably from a fountain of youth represented by a tree. OK, we may be off there, but that's what we gathered from a trailer. Aronofsky himself said to the crowd: "Confused? Well, there's 90 more minutes of the film."

We cannot wait for this one. The few minutes we've seen has some truly iconic imagery, some brutal battle sequences, and an absolutely transcendent moment when Tom (Jackman, bald) is meditating in front of a tree while floating in space. The 5500 or so people in the auditorium became absolutely hushed during the sequence, as if they knew they were watching something special. The film during that sequence recalls the quiet space of Kubrick's 2001, Zemeckis' Contact, or even Douglas Trumbull's Silent Running.

The film should be releasing this fall. Keep it on IGN FilmForce for more information. Check out our exclusive interviews with Darren Aronofsky and Rachel Weisz.

-- Steven Horn

http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/634/634299p1.html