Jackman's Sci-fi Film Gets A Cool Response

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday September 5, 2006

Garry Maddox

HUGH JACKMAN'S new science fiction film, The Fountain, has divided viewers at the Venice Film Festival.

The first screening, a late-night session for the media, brought a smattering of boos and responding applause at a festival where audiences are known for making their opinions felt.

Jackman plays a scientist trying to find a cure for the cancer that is killing his wife, played by Rachel Weisz, who won an Oscar this year for The Constant Gardener.

But a time-travel element to the film was more enigmatic. Jackman's character, Tomas, is at times a Spanish conquistador searching for the Tree of Life in 16th-century Mayan culture. At other times he is a shaven-headed monk-cum-astronaut travelling to a distant nebula in the 26th century. Weisz also plays the Queen of Spain.

The director, Darren Aronofsky, who has previously directed f and Requiem for a Dream, has said The Fountain is about love and coping with mortality during three vastly different time periods.

"The desire to live forever is deep in our culture. Every day people are looking for ways to extend life or feel younger," Aronofsky said.

The film was originally have been shot in Australia with Brad Pitt in the lead role and Cate Blanchett in the Weisz role, but the plan collapsed.

Aronofsky reputedly scaled back the budget to get it made and cast Jackman after seeing him on stage as Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz.

Jackman has joked that after reading the script for The Fountain he slept outside Aronofsky's door until the director gave him the job.

"The story presents a modern myth," he said.

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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