Aronofsky Planning Noah's Ark Epic, Zwick Helms 'American Assassin,' and Fuqua Dumps Tupac for Eminem

After exiting The Wolverine sequel, Darren Aronofsky has been busy with plans for an epic project. The Black Swan director is currently shopping around a retelling of Noah's Ark to various studios with a price tag of $130 million to make it. Paramount, Fox and Summit Entertainment have expressed interest in co-financing with New Regency. Noah is described as a "big, fantasy epic and an opportunity for Aronofsky to create a world."

This isn't the only retelling of epic religious stories that Aronofsky is working on. The director is also considering directing Exodus, the story of Moses, his defiance of the Pharaoh and delivery of the Hebrews from enslavement, for 20th Century Fox. Exodus is written by the writing team of Adam Cooper and Bill Collage (Accepted, New York Minute).

Which project do you think Aronofsky should take on? So far, it seems like he's more invested and passionate about Noah's Ark, and merging that with Aronofsky's directing style could yield some interesting results.

CBS Films has chosen Edward Zwick to write and direct the spy thriller American Assassin, based on the Vince Flynn novel about counterterrorism agent Mitch Rapp. Zwick will pen the script with long-time writing partner Marshall Herskovitz. Though American Assassin is the eleventh novel in Flynn's Mitch Rapp series, it is an origin story that CBS Films hopes will become a major blockbuster. The fledgling movie arm of CBS Corporation has released five movies thus far and none of them have been critically or financially successful. Of the five, this year's Beastly starring Vanessa Hudgens and Alex Pettyfer posted the biggest profit, and had the smallest production budget. Faster and The Back-Up Plan essentially broke even while Extraordinary Measures and The Mechanic both tanked.

Antoine Fuqua was brought on board last year to direct an adaptation of the seventh book in the series, Consent to Kill, though no release date has been set yet. This could be a big hit, though, with the Mitch Rapp novel having sold more than 13 million copies in the U.S. and another million internationally.

Are you excited to see a new spy franchise on the big screen or, given CBS Films' lackluster success thus far, do you think these movies are also destined to fail?

Up until last month, Training Day director Antoine Fuqua was attached to direct a biopic about the life of Tupac Shakur. The director has since stepped away and is set to join a movie that revolves around a different hip-hop artist – Eminem (!). Fuqua is now set to direct Southpaw, a fictional boxing drama written by the creator of cable-TV's "Sons of Anarchy." Southpaw will tell the story of a lefty welterweight who faces tragedy even as he's fought his way to a title. The story will include struggles from Eminem's own life, and is slated to begin shooting later this year. This will be Eminem's second leading role following his critically praised performance in 8 Mile. Do you think Eminem is a good fit, or should Mr. Mathers stick to dominating the music charts?