Director Talks 'Noah,' From Childhood Story to the Big Screen
ABC News' Linsey Davis reports:
Director Darren Aronofsky is bringing his take on the well-known biblical story to the big screen with the movie " Noah."
In the film, Noah - just like the man in the Bible - is consumed by God's message to save the animals. He must bring two of every creature onto an ark he has built, protect them from a deluge and then start anew.
RELATED: "Noah" designer says ark made of straw and volcanic ash.
"Everything that happens, it is … [a] miracle," he said. "Everything in it is mythical. It's huge."
Aronofsky, 45, said he'd been passionate about the Old Testament story since he was 13.
"You don't want to mess with it [the story]," he said. "You just want to bring it to life and bring, breathe life into it."
RELATED: "Noah" is "true to the spirit of the Bible."
Aronofsky, whose credits include "Black Swan" and "The Wrestler," said Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe's depiction of Noah, as dark as it is powerful, is based on the original biblical text.
"This is a dude who stood by and watched the entire population of the planet perish," Crowe said in a previous interview. "He's not benevolent. He's not even nice."
"The first thing that Noah does after the ark gets to land is he gets really, really drunk," he said. "And that, to us, was a big clue. What type of hero, you know, after through this huge, huge adventure and surviving in, sort of a victorious moment after the dove and the olive branch, goes and gets so drunk that he gets naked and curses his own son?"
Aronofsky also used the Bible as a blueprint for the ark, which most considered as a ship but is described in scripture as a rectangle constructed with the sole purpose of surviving the flood.
The movie hits theaters Friday.
ABC News' Rachel Humphries contributed to this story.