This is fairly worthy of discussion, the troubling reactions among three major religious groups after seeing "Noah," due next March. Religious films can be big at the box office ("The Passion of the Christ") or flat-out personal ("The Last Temptation of Christ") and it always seems hard, from the filmmakers' standpoint to, well, take a stand. Martin Scorsese certainly did with "Temptation" and boy did he receive backlash. Mel Gibson scored huge at the box office and reportedly among Christian audiences with "Passion," and a few critics said it was the most violent movie they've ever seen, and there were many reports of parents taking young kids to see it. His follow-up movie with religious themes, "Apocalypto," faired worse, proving once again there is no formula when it comes to subject matter. Which brings us back to Darren Aronofsky, whose "Black Swan" about dueling ballet dancers cleared $300 million worldwide and won an Oscar for its lead. People want strong stories. "Noah" probably has to go deeper, or resonate with the world today in some form. Heck, throw in a little wit and see what happens, especially with Crowe involved.
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