Darren Aronofsky is an intelligent young screenwriter-director whose feature film career was launched in 1998 with the release of the uniquely original and critically acclaimed film Pi. His latest feature is Requiem for a Dream, an adaptation of the novel by Hubert Selby. This is the second film made from one of Selby's books, the other being 1990's Last Exit to Brooklyn directed by Uli Edel.

In our conversation, Aronofsky talked about the adaptation process of Requiem, and spoke about his upcoming job at the helm of the newest Batman film -- hopefully as part of a team that will include the brilliant writer-artist Frank Miller. Miller's startling re-envsionment of the Batman mythos with his hugely successful graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns contains all of the powerful storytelling elements that are conspicuously missing from the increasingly lacking series of films.

Allen White: What is the first thing that draws you to a story?

Darren Aronofsky: Good question. I don’t know. That’s really hard to say. It’s gotta be something that, you know, keeps you awake at night, that gets you really excited. It’s that feeling when you get really excited about an idea, you know, that scheming feeling, you know, when you just sort of see all the angles and it just looks really cool.

AW: So does there have to be a definite strong visual component to it as well, in this case, if you want to make it into a film?

DA: No, I think the visual component comes afterwards. I mean, of course, when you read a story, I think there are certain stories that are better for the visual medium of film. But there’s always a way to tell a story visually. On of my mentors, Stuart Rosenberg, who directed Cool Hand Luke and Pope of Greenwich Village, great director, he would tell me that certain things don’t translate well to the screen, certain things are better as novels or books. And I think I agree. You know, there are certain problems you can run into. So that has to be some of the decision-making process.

AW: Absolutely. And that leads exactly to the next question, which is: Working on the screenplay for Requiem together with the original author must have been this rare and exciting opportunity.

DA: Definitely.

AW: I would think also potentially somewhat intimidating. So tell me about the advantages and disadvantages of doing an adaptation with the original author.

DA: It always depends, I guess, on the original author. In the case of Selby, he was completely generous with his material and really trying to translate it into film.

And I think it just depends on the writer. Certain writers get that it’s a different medium and that you have to do a translation of some sort. And certain writers — I actually haven’t actually had that experience — but I imagine that certain writers can’t do that. But Selby was completely generous, and it was a great collaboration working with him. You know, it’s definitely intimidating at first to start working with your hero, but you just try and be as completely honest as you can be, and as really as straightforward as you can be, because you don’t want any surprises to land on them, because that’s how you get people pissed.

AW: How did the process actually work? Was it both of you just sitting in a room—

DA: Oh, no, we didn’t work in the same room, unfortunately, ‘cause he lives in LA, I live in New York. What happened is at first I was going to write it by myself, because he had written a draft about fifteen years ago for another producer, and he lost it, the draft. You know, nothing happened, it’s fifteen years, a lot happens. And I started writing and I got about three-quarters of the way done, and I got a phone call that he found it in his mom’s basement. So he sent it over, and literally about eighty percent of the scenes that I had put in he had put in. We both sort of saw what the heart of the story was. And I then I sort of fused them both together, then I sent it to him, and we did notes back and forth for a long time. And then eventually we arrived at something we were both happy with.

AW: Did this process take place before or after Pi? Because it indicated in the press notes that you had already bought the rights to it.

DA: No, I bought the rights during the cutting of Pi.

AW: So you were already, in effect, working on the script, or starting thinking about the script at that point?

DA: Yeah. You know, while we were cutting Pi, we visited Cubby — Selby, Cubby is his nickname — me and Grampa, me and Eric Watson — excuse me, I’m using everyone’s nicknames. Me and Eric Watson, we went out and we visited him, and he was excited. And it was great. If you get a chance, if you’re doing screenwriting, you should call him up and talk to him. He’s pretty accessible, I’m sure they can help you talk to him.

AW: I would love to talk to him, because Last Exit to Brooklyn is one of my absolute favorite books. I mean, I think it’s a masterpiece.

DA: Yeah, it is.

AW: I think actually that it’s a better book, but your adaptation is a much better adaptation of a Selby work.

DA: I think Requiem for a Dream is an easier adaptation, because it’s a much more cinematic narrative throughline. I thought that screenplay interpretation of Last Exit to Brooklyn was really good. I though the way they fused all the stories was the best accomplishment of the movie.

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