Here comes the flood

In theaters Friday: Lawless, The Possession
New on Blu-ray: Battleship, The Lucky One

No, not from Hurricane Isaac. A flood of Biblical proportions is brewing at Paramount Studios. Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky is finally bringing his passion project to the screen with Noah, an epic retelling of the Old Testament tale of God letting loose his wrath on sinful humanity but sparing one man, his family and the animals of the Earth in a giant boat called an ark.

The film doesn’t arrive for another year and a half, but USA Today has the first promotional image of star Russell Crowe as Noah. Crowe looks suitably haggard and world-weary in this first glimpse, an indication that Aronofsky is telling a story as dark and treacherous as the familiar and apocalyptic Biblical account requires.

What’s most interesting, and potentially controversial, is Aronofsky’s inclusion of elements of Noah’s tale that are slightly more apocryphal than the Genesis text itself. Rephaim, only mentioned in passing in Biblical texts are thought by scholars to be a race of inordinately tall men, and they will be represented in Aronofsky’s version by a giant named Og, the King of Bashan. According to Hebrew lore, Noah built a special compartment of the ark for Og and ferried him to safety through the storm.

Aronofsky will also bring frightening, wingless fallen angels to the big screen in a move that will surely fascinate or infuriate Christians and Hebrew scholars alike. Emma Watson is aboard along with Jennifer Connelly as Noah’s wife, reuniting her with her A Beautiful Mind co-star, and Sir Anthony Hopkins as Noah’s 900-year-old grandfather Methuselah.

See Aronofsky and Natalie Portman discussing Black Swan with Charlie Rose: