After “The Whale” last year, many movie fans wondered what Darren Aronofsky would helm next. Well, IndieWire reports that the director will work with A24 again for his next project, which is about the last thing anyone expects (and probably the last movie anyone needs to see). Aronofsky’s next film will be a biopic about the life of tech mogul, SpaceX CEO, and X owner Elon Musk: a man who, for all of the wrong reasons, exemplifies the present like no other.
READ MORE: Brendan Fraser Wins The Best Actor Oscar For ‘The Whale’
Aronosfky will base his film on Walter Isaacson‘s biopgraphy of Musk that hit bookstores this past September. It’ll be Aronofsky’s second feature in a row under the A24 banner after “The Whale.” Critics met that film with a mixed reception, but it did make nearly $55 million at the box office of a $3 million budget, with Brendan Fraser winning a Best Actor Oscar for his leading role. Still, an Elon Musk biopic is the last thing one would expect from the guy who’s directed things like “mother!,” “Black Swan,” and “Requiem For A Dream.”
And that makes one wonder what A24 and Aronofsky have in mind for this project. It won’t be a massively budgeted movie like “Noah,” but it’s also not material that needs the visual style of “The Fountain” or the visceral, lo-fi energy of “Pi.” Therefore, it’s worth noting that another one of Isaacson’s biographies on a tech mogul was made into a movie: Danny Boyle‘s 2015 film “Steve Jobs.” If Aronofsky follows Boyle’s lead, his picture will be character-driven and focus on distinct events in Musk’s life, and he’ll need an actor of Michael Fassbender‘s prowess to carry the movie on his shoulders.
In the case of Musk, the world’s richest man, there are several movie-worthy events throughout his life, like his disastrous $44 billion purchase of Twitter last year. Or his time as chairman of Tesla, which included getting sued by the SEC for falsely tweeting that he’d privately taken over the company. Or the founding of SpaceX, Musk’s spacecraft manufacturer and defense contractor. Or going back even further, Musk’s youth in South Africa, and his father’s shady business dealing as co-owner of a Zambian emerald mine. The list goes on.
While some tout Musk as a genius entrepreneur and businessman, others deride him as the worst example of contemporary capitalism. In short, he’s a polarizing figure, and Aronofsky will need a leading man who can perform Musk’s eccentricities without being too distracting. Any ideas on who that will be?
