Darren Aronofsky Says He Gets "The Best Hate Mail Ever" & Teases New Project, 20 Years In The Making

Darren Aronofsky is one of the most polarizing filmmakers working today. It says a lot when your most commercial film is “Black Swan,” right? Well, it would seem that his filmmaking work has turned him into a bit of a hardened creator, totally not scared at all of his hate mail that he receives.

While conducting a masterclass at Egypt’s El Gouna Film Festival (via Variety), Darren Aronofky talked about the hate mail he has received over the course of his long filmmaking career. Specifically, he talks about some of the critiques he received after the release of his most recent feature, “mother!” which was one of the more polarizing films in his career.

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“We were nervous about how controversial it was going to be, but then when you release a movie to the world, and there’s so many angry people, you start to wonder, ‘Hold on, what did I do?’ I get some of the best hate mail ever, which is great,” said the filmmaker. “But also out of that, the type of excitement and passion you get from other people that really connect with the film reminds you why you’re doing it.”

One such piece of hate mail that the filmmaker recalled came after the release of the aforementioned “mother!” Aronofsky said that he received a text messages from an incensed movie-goer that said that they were going to consume coal and do as much environmental 

For those that don’t remember, “mother!” tells the story of a woman and her husband that find their lives turned upside down after some mysterious visitors arrive at their home. The film, immediately upon its release in 2017, was met with reviews that ranged from the film being a work of art to it being one of the worst films of the year. So, you can imagine that other than the angry text messaging person, Aronofsky has heard it all.

Also during the class, Aronofsky teased a mysterious new project that he is thinking will be next on his agenda. Apparently, it’s a project that he’s been trying to make for two decades.

“There’s something I’ve been working on for 20 years, a script that came to me 20 years ago that we keep trying to do,” Aronofsky revealed. “I’ve tried to do it as an episodic thing, I tried to do animated, I tried to do live-action, I tried every single way, but I actually think it might get done this time. So it’s coming.”

As of now, we know that Aronofsky has two projects on his slate that has already been announced, a film with Brendan Fraser titled “The Whale and a Blumhouse thriller titled “Adrift.” Release dates for those films have yet to be announced.