Aronofsky Shopping a George Washington Pic

As we discussed just this week on our movie podcast, The Plot Hole, Darren Aronofsky's potential involvement makes any film more interesting. Now, we can add a movie about George Washington to a concrete list of those very projects.

Paramount Pictures is negotiating to acquire The General, a film about the Revolutionary War hero and first U.S. president from the Black Swan director, which he would produce and likely direct under his Protozoa Pictures banner. Paramount has first look at all Protozoa projects; the studio will distribute the filmmaker's current endeavor, the biblical epic Noah starring Russell Crowe, which is now casting and eying a March 2014 release date.


Plot details are scare on The General, but Variety sources say its less of a biopic and more of a gritty drama along the lines of Unforgiven. One can assume this means we'll see few politics and lots of muskets. Adam Cooper and Bill Collage, the duo who helped pen previous historical action epics Accepted and Tower Heist, wrote the script—Aronofsky must like what he read.

No word on whether The General would be Aronofsky's first order of business after wrapping up Noah; he has shown interested in directing The Weinstein Co.'s Judy Garland biopic, Get Happy, with Anne Hathaway attached to play the former Hollywood starlet. He's also been attached to direct projects at Fox Searchlight and Warner Bros. in the recent past.