THR has news of Brad Pitt and Darren Aronofsky trying for a third collaboration after failing on two previous aborted attempts (The Fountain and The Fighter):
Guillermo Arriaga, the writer behind Brad Pitt’s fractured drama “Babel” as well as indie darling “Amores perros,” is reteaming with Pitt for “The Tiger,” a drama that Darren Aronofsky is developing as a potential Pitt vehicle. The project will be a co-production between Focus Features and Random House’s film division.
The story, based on an upcoming nonfiction book by John Vaillant, centers on an animal activist who must protect the small Siberian town he is in when a tiger begins attacking its inhabitants.
Pitt and Aronofsky, who has not yet committed to directing “Hunting,” have been developing the project under the radar since last year… Arriaga’s other credits include dramas “21 Grams” as well as “The Burning Plain,” which he also directed.
About the book:
“This elegant work of narrative non-fiction has it all—beauty, intrigue, a primeval locale, fully realized characters, and a conflict that speaks to the state of our world. Obsessively well-researched and artfully written, The Tiger takes us on a journey to the raw edge of civilization, to a world of vengeful cats and venal men, a world that, in Vallant’s brilliant telling, is simultaneously haunting and enchanting.”
—Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers, Blood and Thunder, and Hellhound On His Trail
“This book must be read by everybody who is interested in the conservation of wildlife. It takes you to the Russian wilderness to meet face-to-face with the Siberian tiger.”
—Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation and Animals Make Us Human“An absolutely superb book. There have been many tiger books but none which so deeply try to probe the mind of tigers and the mind and habits of humans living in the same forest.”
—George Schaller, Wildlife Conservation Society & Panthera
