The Humane Society is giving Darren Aronofsky an award for not putting real animals on Noah’s ark
Sometimes, the bar for what deserves an award can be set pretty low. Sure, kids might get trophies just for participating in something, but that’s to teach them not to give up. Once a kid grows up and becomes—for example—a respectable director, there’s no reason to laud them simply for not quitting. Luckily, this story has nothing to do with that, because Darren Aronofsky is getting an award from the Humane Society Of The United States and it’s not for doing nothing, it’s for not doing something terrible.
This comes from Entertainment Weekly, which reports that Aronofsky will be given the organization’s first-ever Humane Filmmaker Award at an event this November that will “recognize Aronofsky’s leadership and commitment to animal protection and welfare.” Specifically, the award is celebrating the director’s decision to use computer-generated animals in Noah instead of taking the easy route and actually finding two of each one, training them all well enough not to kill each other, cramming them onto a huge boat with Russell Crowe, and then sailing around the world.
Reportedly, Aronofsky says he used fake animals because anything else would be “dangerous,” and also that it would go against Noah’s morals as “the first naturalist” to risk harming real living things. So, in other words, Aronofsky is being honored because he had the foresight to do something with CG that wouldn’t make much sense to do without it. Meanwhile, HBO jealously looks on at the one award it may never win.