Christian Bale drops out of Darren Aronofsky's 'Noah'; Michael Fassbender in the picture?

As much as guys like me(meaning film nerds) continue to hype up Michael Fassbender, the fact remains he's mostly an unknown quantity to most people. I hope that will change by the time December is over, as he's got two movies that, while both deal with the issue of sex in some way, couldn't be more different. Shame, which features him teaming up with Hunger director Steve McQueen, is flick that races on uncontrollable emotions as Fassbender plays a sex addict. A Dangerous Method is purely analytical, with Fassbender starring as Carl Jung. Will he be popular enough after both of these movies for a studio to trust him to lead a $130M production? We may be about to find out.

Darren Aronofsky has been putting together his dream project, Noah, dealing with that guy who built a boat or something. They made a Steve Carell movie about him. Anyway, Christian Bale had been attached to star, but with Terrence Malick stealing him away for two movies in a row next year, his schedule is all full. With Bale out, Fassbender's name has turned up as a possibility to replace him.Variety says that Fassbender has met to talk about the role, but no offer has been made as of yet.

Paramount may be hesitant to hand over such a high priced film to Fassbender, but it's not as if he's a stranger to big productions. Over the summer he starred as Magneto in X-men: First Class, the highest grossing film of his career. Yes, it earned more than Inglourious Basterds, which he had a small but important role in.

My hope is that the studio will make the move, and if they're worried about star power, bank on Aronofsky's good name after impressing folks last year with Black Swan.