Could Darren Aronofsky direct Disney's Maleficent?

Following the stonking reception of Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan , it's no surprise to discover that he's a man in hot demand.

Since directing Natalie Portman to Oscar victory, Aronofsky has bailed on his first follow-up movie, The Wolverine , citing the difficulty of being away from his family.

Word from Badass Digest suggests that Aronofsky is now being courted to direct two high-profile projects: Disney's Maleficent (which recently lost Tim Burton) and Warner Bros' Moses .

While Aronofsky proved he could more than handle demonic female presences in Black Swan , Maleficent doesn't seem like the likeliest choice for him: but we'd have said the same about The Wolverine .

He'd certainly give the project an edge, and he'd practically guarantee an ace lead performance given his track record.

The Moses project (not to be confused with the 300 -esque tale set up at Fox) will see him take on the Old Testament story of the Exodus (Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt, through the desert, and across the parted Red Sea).

Aronofsky has been previously linked to the story of Noah's Ark, so it's not unfeasible to think he might be attracted to this version.

Frankly, anything that Aronofsky signs on for will jump up a couple of levels on our interest charts, and both of these projects could benefit greatly from his leadership, but there's no indication that he has actually expressed interest in either film.

Recently, he's been linked to sci-fi Human Nature with George Clooney, as well as Machine Man , so it's a pretty open field right now.

Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.