A year ago, it actually looked like Darren Aronofsky's next movie would be the X-Men spin-off sequel The Wolverine.  That didn't happen, obviously, and rather than getting his adamantium on, the director has been trying get his Old Testament epic Noah off the ground.  One essential part of making a movie based on the story of Noah's Ark and the flood requires a proper Noah, and it looks very much like that Noah is going to end up being Russell Crowe.

So Marvel Studios has not been having an easy time getting its Thor sequel off the ground, what with the public troubles setting a director for the second adventure of Asgard's favorite son.  Having already moved the release date once, the project recently lost Patty Jenkins, who was set to become the first female director of a major superhero event movie (Lexi Alexander previously directed 2008's Punisher: War Zone, but that was a smaller, grittier affair).  Now, this could all be overblown rumor-mongering wrapped around a thin, gossipy thread of gender politics, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, the franchise's biggest star, Natalie Portman, is said to be unhappy with Jenkins's departure from Thor 2, a departure that may not have been as simple as it seemed.

If you haven't effectively repressed the memory of medical dismemberment, psychotic breaking, imprisonment, and ass-to-ass, then you remember that Requiem for a Dream, apart from being an arbitrarily grueling cinematic experience, is a pretty effective argument against drug use.  In the decade since his sophomore feature, director Darren Aronofsky has gone on to become a pretty big deal, and he's once again returned to world of drug addition with a series of four anti-meth PSAs.  As you'd expect, given the horrific subject material and uncompromising director, all four are built to be as unsettling as possible while still airing on network television, providing a series of visceral, appropriately dramatic sampling of meth's effects.

After combining body horror, turgid hallucinagenic thrills, and ballet to Oscar-nominated effect with last year's Black Swan, the question of Darren Aronofsky's next feature directorial project has been an interesting one.  For a spell there it seemed he would actually direct his The Fountain star Hugh Jackman in the stand-alone X-Men story The Wolverine, but he exited that project in March and was subsequently replaced by James Mangold.  Rather than helming the exploits of an adamantium-sporting mutant, it looks like the auteur will be directing his passion project of Biblical proportions, as Paramount Pictures have partnered with new Regency to co-finance his long-in-the-works Noah.

Since Darren Aronofsky abruptly departed the X-Men spin-off/sequel The Wolverine back in March, his next project has been a big question mark.  He's been trying to find financing for an expensive interpretation of the Old Testament story of Noah and the Flood, but he's not sitting still while waiting for that would-be film to come together.  Instead, THR's Heat Vision reports that he'll direct the pilot episode of Hobgoblin, the HBO series from literary power-couple Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman.

Darren Aronofsky, the auteur behind Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, and The Wrestler, has exited what was to be his first big budget comic book adaptation, The Wolverine.  According to Aronofsky, the massive project would keep him out of the country and away from his family for too long, so the Hugh Jackman film is now in need of a director.

You know what the No Strings Attached was missing?  That romantic comedy about two attractive people agreeing to enjoy carnal pleasures without emotional connection may have had Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher, but it didn't have any songs by Kriss Kross.  The new trailer for Friends With Benefits, starring Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake, indicates that this is one romantic comedy with the courage to proudly include the song 'Jump, Jump'.  In my book, that makes it the superior film by default.  See for yourself:

Confident that enough time has passed since Ben Affleck awkwardly sported a costume of red leather in 2003, 20th century Fox is moving ahead with a new cinematic interpretation of Daredevil, Marvel's foremost blind vigilante.  Variety broke the news that the studio has settled on a director: David Slade, who burst onto the scene with Hard Candy and followed it up with the vampiric double whammy of 30 Days of Night and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. 

For some reason, every time I think of Black Swan, I think immediately of Vincent Cassel yelling "Attack it!  Attack it!"  Seems an odd detail to conjure from a film that includes stunning cinematography, top notch performances, ballet like crazy, revolting body-horror, psychotic breaks, and of course, lesbian sex.  20th century Fox Home Entertainment has announced you'll be able to enjoy all that and more when the film hits DVD and Blu-Ray on March 29th.  As usual, the DVD will have a fraction of the special features afforded to the Blu-Ray, so you're going to want to break open that piggy bank and drop some cash on the newfangled format.  Check out the press release and full list of special features:

By now, the whole world is probably well aware that last night's Oscars went down pretty much precisely as anticipated, with The King's Speech taking home the award for Best Picture.  You're now feeling like you used to on Christmas afternoon, when all the presents are unwrapped and the anticipation is kaput. Because we care, we've helpfully provided a full list of the 2011 Academy Award winners in order to console you.