Space Odd-yssey

Every movie becomes a book, usually a paperback cheapie. Occasionally they become graphic novels, but rarely are they definitive alternate versions of a director’s vision, as painter Kent Williams’ take on Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain is. Drawing from the original script - the director’s first attempt, to star Brad Pitt and budgeted north of $100 mil, instead of the half-the-cost, Hugh Jackman version in theatres — Williams paints with his own brush, creating a beautifully sparse impressionistic version of Aronofsky’s specific, pored-over detail. The action, in which the lead character searches for eternal life in three time periods 1000 years apart, remains, yet the narrative seems both more straightforward and less busy. More than mere storyboards in a book, Williams’ The Fountain is like an exquisite cover version, another look at an alternate universe.