Darren Aronofsky’s Noah already has an impressive cast, and it has apparently just increased by one more. According to the director’s Twitter feed (via /Film), Nick Nolte has joined the film as Samyaza, a member of the Nephilim “eleven foot tall fallen angels with six arms and no wings.”
just added the legend nick nolte as the watcher samyaza in #noah . long live the nephilim! it was an honor. pic.twitter.com/tsVxuNlM1J
— darren aronofsky (@DarrenAronofsky) January 14, 2014
The addition of Nolte to the cast is a slightly surprising revelation. The role of Samyaza has long been associated with Mark Margolis, a character actor known for his roles in Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan (and most recently to be seen on Breaking Bad). Nolte stepping into the part gives the lie to that bit of casting, unless of course Aronofsky has split the motion-capture role between two actors, with Nolte donating his voice. Given that principal photography wrapped on Noah not so long ago, there’s a good bet that voicework is precisely what Nolte is up to.
Noah will tell the Biblical story (kind of) of our titular hero (Russell Crowe) and his family as he builds his ark to prepare for the coming Flood. Ray Winstone will be on hand as the villain of the piece, adding some malevolence and one or two possible battle sequences. The trailers thus far have also featured fireballs, explosions, an aged Anthony Hopkins, and Russell Crowe looking broody. Add to that eleven-foot six-armed fallen angels and…well, if this was not an Aronofsky film, I would be laughing right now.
While I’ve been unimpressed with the sights and sounds of Noah so far, Aronofsky usually makes interesting films. Hopefully he will not drop the ball with his very first Biblical epic, especially as he’s assembled such an excellent cast that now includes Nolte. You can let us know what you think about that in the comments.
Noah floats into theatres March 28th.