This morning, director Darren Aronofsky announced via his Twitter account that Anthony Hopkins will be playing the role of Methuselah in the upcoming film, epically-scaled retelling of the biblical story Noah.
He puts it on Twitter:
I’m honored to be working with the great sir anthony hopkins. we just added him to the stellar cast of #Noah; #methuselahlives.
As director said the cast is already looking really strong with Russell Crowe, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Douglas Booth and Jennifer Connelly all on board.
Winstone is reportedly set to play the role of the nemesis to Crowe’s titular character; Watson plays Ila, a young woman who develops a close relationship with Noah’s son, Shem. That role will be played by Booth, with Lerman playing Noah’s other son, Ham; Connelly plays Noah’s wife, Naameh.
Described as a close adaptation of the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark, in a world ravaged by human sin, Noah is given a divine mission: to build an Ark to save creation from the coming flood.
Due to extra-biblical tradition Methuselah was the son of Enoch and the grandfather of Noah who died at the age of 969, seven days before the beginning of the Great Flood; according to Rashion Genesis 7:4, God delayed the Flood specifically because of the seven days of mourning in honor of the righteous Methuselah.
The Noah film is currently filming and is scheduled for a March 28th, 2014 release date.
