The Fountain
Short description
The Fountain follows a man named Tom across three separate eras, each playing out in a different century. In sixteenth-century Spain, a conquistador named Tomás travels into Central American jungles with a priest, Father Avila, searching for the Tree of Life, whose sap is said to grant immortality. In the present day, a scientist named Tom Creo works desperately on a cure for cancer while his wife Izzi, a writer, is dying of the disease; she is composing a story about a conquistador that mirrors their situation. In the year 2500, an astronaut called Tommy drifts through space with a tree aboard his craft, troubled by memories that reach back across a thousand years. Hugh Jackman plays the three central figures, with Rachel Weisz as the women he loves in each strand, and Ellen Burstyn, Mark Margolis, Stephen McHattie and Fernando Hernández among the supporting cast.
Darren Aronofsky directed and wrote the screenplay, his third feature after Pi and Requiem for a Dream and the film that preceded The Wrestler in his filmography. It was produced by Iain Smith, Arnon Milchan and Eric Watson for Warner Bros. Pictures with Protozoa Pictures and Regency Enterprises, on a budget of 35 million dollars, and it took about 16 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.1/10 from roughly 258,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.9/10 from a much smaller set of 3,231 votes. A critics' rating of 6.4/10 from 206 reviews places it slightly below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Filming with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett was originally scheduled to take place in 2002. The film's budget was supposed to be $75 million. However, during pre-production, Pitt left the project due to creative differences with Darren Aronofsky. After that, the project was shelved. In early 2004, Aronofsky rewrote the script with a new budget of $35 million, and Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz agreed to star.
- The film's original title was "The Last Man".
- Hugh Jackman had to shave all the hair on his head and chest for the filming of the last third of the movie.
- In 2005, DC Comics and Vertigo published a comic book based on the first version of the "The Fountain" script.
- The film's music was composed by Clint Mansell, who also worked on the soundtracks for other Darren Aronofsky films ("Requiem for a Dream" (2000) and "Pi" (1997)).
- The quote presented at the beginning of the film – “Therefore, the Lord God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and placed a flaming sword to protect the tree of life” – is not a verbatim reproduction of the original (Genesis 3:24), although it fully conveys its meaning. In the Old Testament of the Bible, the phrase reads: “So he drove out the man; and he placed Cherubs at the east of the garden of Eden, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”
- After the project was shelved, Darren Aronofsky rewrote the script. The first version of the script served as the basis for a graphic novel, illustrated by Kent Williams.
- Darren Aronofsky strived to minimize the use of computer-generated special effects. Instead, micro-photography of chemical reactions was used to create the effects. The main reason for using largely unique, non-computer effects was to reduce the film's production costs. Additionally, according to Aronofsky, current computer technologies will become outdated in a few years, and he wants the film to stand the test of time.
- Among the seventy actors who played Mayan warriors in the film, twenty were actually representatives of the Mayan people from Guatemala. Actor Fernando Hernandez, who played the Lord of Xibalba, was the only one who spoke English.
- The surname of the film's main characters is Creo, which translates from Latin as "I create" and from Spanish as "I believe." Izzy Creo's full name can be translated from Spanish (Y sí, creo) as "yes, I will believe." The heroine's first and last name are shown in the final scene, where Tom brushes snow off Izzy's tombstone.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
