44 Facts About Darren Aronofsky

1.

Darren Aronofsky's films are noted for their surrealistic, melodramatic, and sometimes disturbing elements, often in the form of psychological fiction.

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2.

Darren Aronofsky attended Harvard University, where he studied film and social anthropology, and then the American Film Institute where he studied directing.

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3.

Darren Aronofsky won several film awards after completing his senior thesis film, Supermarket Sweep, which became a National Student Academy Award finalist.

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4.

Darren Aronofsky was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, the son of teachers Charlotte and Abraham Darren Aronofsky, and grew up in the borough's Manhattan Beach neighborhood.

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5.

Darren Aronofsky has one sister, Patti, who attended a professional ballet school through high school.

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6.

Darren Aronofsky attended school in Kenya to pursue an interest in learning about ungulates.

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7.

Darren Aronofsky later said, "[T]he School for Field Studies changed the way I perceived the world".

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8.

Darren Aronofsky became seriously interested in film while attending Harvard after befriending Dan Schrecker, an aspiring animator, and Sean Gullette, who would go on to star in Aronofsky's first film, Pi.

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9.

Darren Aronofsky's senior thesis film, Supermarket Sweep, was a finalist in the 1991 Student Academy Awards.

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10.

In 1992, Darren Aronofsky received his MFA degree in directing from the AFI Conservatory, where his classmates included Todd Field, Doug Ellin, Scott Silver and Mark Waters.

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11.

Darren Aronofsky won the institute's Franklin J Schaffner Alumni Medal.

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12.

Darren Aronofsky followed his debut with Requiem for a Dream, a film based on Hubert Selby Jr.

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13.

Darren Aronofsky received acclaim for his stylish direction, and was nominated for another Independent Spirit Award, this time for Best Director.

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14.

Darren Aronofsky was awarded the PRISM Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with the National Institute on Drug Abuse for the film's depiction of drug abuse.

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15.

In May 2000, Darren Aronofsky was briefly attached to make an adaptation of David Wiesner's 1999 children's book Sector 7 for Nickelodeon Movies, the project remains unmade.

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16.

Darren Aronofsky, who collaborated with Frank Miller on an unproduced script for Ronin, brought Miller to co-write Year One with him, intending to reboot the series.

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17.

In June 2001, actress Cate Blanchett entered talks to join the film, which Darren Aronofsky, wanting the title to remain secret, had given the working title of The Last Man.

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18.

In 2007, Darren Aronofsky hired writer Scott Silver to develop The Fighter with him.

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19.

Darren Aronofsky approached Bale to star in the film, but Darren Aronofsky dropped out because of its similarities to The Wrestler and to work on MGM's RoboCop remake.

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20.

In July 2010, Darren Aronofsky had left the project due to uncertainty over the financially distressed studio's future.

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21.

Later during 2007, Darren Aronofsky said he was planning to film a movie about Noah's Ark.

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22.

Darren Aronofsky hired Robert Siegel to turn his idea into a script.

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23.

Darren Aronofsky's introduced Aronofsky to Mila Kunis, who joined the cast in 2009.

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24.

Darren Aronofsky served as an executive producer on The Fighter, which was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars and won two for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo.

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25.

Darren Aronofsky was attached to The Wolverine, which was scheduled to begin production in March 2011, but he left the project due to scheduling issues.

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26.

In December 2011, Darren Aronofsky directed the music video for Lou Reed and Metallica's "The View" from their album Lulu.

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27.

Darren Aronofsky was set to direct an HBO series pilot called Hobgoblin.

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28.

Darren Aronofsky was set to work on the project with Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon and his wife Ayelet Waldman.

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29.

In 2011, Darren Aronofsky tried to launch production on Noah, a retelling of the Bible story of Noah's Ark, projected for a $115 million budget.

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30.

Darren Aronofsky announced the start of filming on Noah on Twitter in the same month, tweeting shots of the filming in Iceland.

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31.

Darren Aronofsky did not use live animals for the film, saying in a PETA video that "There's really no reason to do it anymore because the technology has arrived".

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32.

In 2020, Darren Aronofsky produced director Lance Oppenheim's debut feature documentary, Some Kind of Heaven.

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33.

Darren Aronofsky filmed both works with a muted palette and a grainy style.

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34.

In 1999, Darren Aronofsky thought that The Matrix redefined the science fiction genre in film.

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35.

Darren Aronofsky sought to make a science fiction film that explored new territory, as did The Matrix and its predecessors Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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36.

Darren Aronofsky wanted to go beyond science fiction films with plots driven by technology and science.

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37.

Darren Aronofsky called Black Swan a companion piece to The Wrestler, recalling one of his early projects about a love affair between a wrestler and a ballerina.

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38.

Darren Aronofsky eventually separated the wrestling and the ballet worlds, considering them as "too much for one movie".

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39.

Darren Aronofsky has mentioned that he "learned a lot" from Jean-Luc Godard's film Breathless.

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40.

Darren Aronofsky appealed the rating, claiming that cutting any portion of the film would dilute its message.

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41.

Darren Aronofsky began dating English actress Rachel Weisz in the summer of 2001, and in 2005 they were engaged.

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42.

In November 2010, Weisz and Darren Aronofsky announced that they had been apart for months, but were continuing to raise their son together in New York.

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43.

In November 2014, Darren Aronofsky was announced as the President of the Jury for the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, for February 2015.

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44.

Darren Aronofsky is a board member of the Sierra Club Foundation and The School for Field Studies.

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