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EXCLUSIVE: 'Black Swan' And 'The Wrestler' Started Life As One Movie, Darren Aronofsky Says

Posted 8/30/10 12:34 pm EST by in News


In some strange parallel universe, one in which filmmaker Darren Aronofsky made some of his choices a little bit differently, "The Wrestler" and his upcoming follow-up "Black Swan" exist as a single film, one about the coupling of a wrestler and a ballet dancer. Bizarre? Absolutely. Aronofsky nonetheless looks at the two films -- the older of which garnered two Oscar nominations while the newer will kick off the Venice Film Festival in a couple days -- as part of a single line of thought.

"I've always considered the two films companion pieces," he said in an exclusive interview with MTV's Eric Ditzian as part of our ongoing fall preview week. "They are really connected and people will see the connections. It's funny, because wrestling some consider the lowest art — if they would even call it art — and ballet some people consider the highest art. But what was amazing to me was how similar the performers in both of these worlds are. They both make incredible use of their bodies to express themselves."

The tie between the two has roots that go back more than 10 years, to a time when Aronofsky had a vision for a film that would put these at-odds art forms into close contact with one another. Read More...

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From 'Dark Knight' To 'The Wrestler': A Journey Into An Oscar Montage From Hell

Posted 2/17/09 11:07 pm EST by in Hot Stuff, Video


We're a few short days away from another Oscar gala so it's as good a time as any to share our latest ambitious little short. Yes, for the second year in a row MTV's Movies Editor Josh Horowitz has found himself cast out into a special circle of Oscar hell thanks to the mysterious powers of none other than Kurt Loder. You may think it's a dream come true to journey Billy Crystal-style through the year's biggest nominees but think again. You try going toe to toe with Benjamin Button, the Dark Knight, and Richard Nixon in under five minutes.

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Mickey Rourke Climbs Into The Ring For WWE's 'Wrestlemania'

Posted 1/27/09 8:52 am EST by in News


Mickey Rourke'Contributed by Silas Lesnick

Access Hollywood scored the strangest news of the day with the announcement that Mickey Rourke, fresh from his Oscar nomination in Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler", is set to get in the ring for real at the WWE's "Wrestlemania 25" on April 5th.

Wait, what? As crazy as it sounds, it looks like Rourke's pretty confident about the idea, claiming that he's been speaking with wrestler-turned-actor Rowdy Roddy Piper about participating. He even called out wrestler Chris Jericho, saying, "You better get in shape, because I'm coming after your a--." Read More...

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'The Wrestler' Director Darren Aronofsky On Mickey Rourke: 'I'm Just Very Proud Of Him'

Posted 1/12/09 2:08 am EST by in Video


It's been one of the biggest success stories in recent Hollywood memory: former '80s heartthrob Mickey Rourke, beaten down and weathered and having nearly driven himself out of Hollywood, returning under the direction of "Fountain" director Darren Aronofsky to an undisputedly illustrious comeback.

Mickey Rourke's inspirational performance in "The Wrestler" has garnered him near-universal acclaim, and a Golden Globes nomination -- and win -- for Best Actor. But even if he hadn't taken home a statue, just the mere nod from the Hollywood community would've been enough of to signal that Mickey Rourke has returned. Below, listen to Aronofsky's remarks on his star, and then click here to check out all of our red carpet interviews from the 2009 Golden Globes.

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Kurt Loder Reviews 'The Wrestler': 'A Fearless And Heartbreaking Performance'

Posted 12/19/08 1:40 pm EST by in Reviews


Mickey Rourke in 'The Wrestler'FROM MTV.COM: Mickey Rourke has taken a lot of punishment over the years, most of it with a puzzling eagerness. In movies of the 1980s, like "Diner," "Angel Heart" and "The Pope of Greenwich Village," his whispery charisma made him one of the most fascinating young actors in film. Then, in the early '90s, he bailed out of the business to become a low-level professional boxer, which is where the punishment came in. Now, at the age of 52, with a face so heavily repaired it resembles an Easter Island import, Rourke has found the role of a lifetime in Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler," in which he plays a has-been grappler who has also taken a lot of punishment but can't stop coming back for more — punishment is his life. It's a fearless and heartbreaking performance: Rourke himself may look lumpy and worked-over, but his charisma remains undented.

His character is Randy Robinson — "The Ram" — a star on the pro-wrestling circuit back in the '80s. Twenty-five years later, he's still pulling on the tights and soaking up steroids, but the matches are sparse these days, and the money minimal — he works a dead-end supermarket job on the side, but still can't make the rent in the dismal New Jersey trailer park where he lives. (New Jersey, with its bare trees and wintry flatlands, is a presiding emotional presence in the picture.) Wrestling has changed, too: Now your opponents come at you with barbed wire and staple guns, and rake dinner forks across your face. It's a young man's game, and Randy, with his bad back, hearing aid and deteriorating ticker, is no longer young.

Continue reading Kurt Loder's review of "The Wrestler" on MTV.com!

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Mickey Rourke And Darren Aronofsky: Party People, By Kurt Loder

Posted 12/4/08 4:21 pm EST by in Behind The Scenes


Mickey Rourke and Darren AronofskyNEW YORK -- Fox Searchlight Pictures threw the first big movie-biz holiday party of the season on Wednesday night, in the Library of the Hudson Hotel. (It's a "library" with a bar, a billiard table and giant framed cow portraits thick on the walls.) The company had much to be festive about, two of its latest features being the focus of much, as they say, "Oscar buzz."

Director Danny Boyle was on hand to absorb back pats and congratulatory chatter for "Slumdog Millionaire," his quasi-Bollywood love story/adventure movie, which was shot in Mumbai and features, among several other things, one of the year's great soundtracks (by famed Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman). Also in attendance was the film's cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle, a madly affable Englishman, who attempted to explain the special camera he'd invented for the picture -- a sort of mini-Steadicam rig, it sounded like, amid the din -- and expressed his great love of India, a country where he's spent a considerable amount of time. Mumbai, especially, he said, is an extraordinarily crowded place ("You open up a cupboard and a family of fifteen comes tumbling out"), and it's a challenge to shoot in, but he'd go back in a minute. Not right this minute, though. First he has to hook up for a new picture with his longtime colleague, the Danish curmudgeon/director Lars Von Trier. Read More...

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The Dailies: September 2, 2008

Posted 9/2/08 4:56 pm EST by in Dailies


Guy Ritchie- Not so elementary after all. Guy Ritchie himself shoots down rumors that Russell Crowe will star as Watson in "Sherlock Holmes." (Empire)

- Bruce Springsteen pens a song for new film "The Wrestler." Boss. (Darren Aronofsky)

- Comic god Mark Millar talks about his Superman trilogy, which may or may not actually ever happen. (G4)

- In a world where voice legend Don LaFontaine passes away from a collapsed lung. (ET)

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