Director Watch: Aronofsky Considers Human Nature with Clooney, Still "Playing Out" His Options

Darren Aronofsky said goodbye to Wolverine two months ago,. Now he's eyeing Human Nature with George Clooney. The script, written by Jeff Welch, is fifteen years old, and follows a cryogenically frozen man who wakes up to discover that humans are now pets to another species. While it seems there's a new sci-fi-future tale every five minutes, we're guessing this one has something unique if it got Aronofsky's attention.

If Warner Bros. producer Akiva Goldsman's budget turns dollars into good sense, this could be the Black Swan director's next project, and a long-awaited career boost for the otherwise unknown Welch, whose lone credit is a 2004 TV movie called Bet Your Life. Aronofsky has been attached to a few other projects, but since awards season a question mark has loomed over his plans...

He told us last September, "I have a lot of things, but I don’t really know what I’m going to do. I’m going to play this out a little bit, take a break, a breather for a little bit. See what’s out there, and figure it out." Seems those comments still apply.

Clooney has a busy few years ahead of him. For starters, there's The Ides of March (he co-wrote the script, based on Beau Willimon's play, directed, produced and stars) which opens October 14. Then Sideways writer-director Alexander Payne's comedy-drama The Descendants lands December 16. He will soon shoot The Man from U.N.C.L.E. with Steven Soderbergh (one of the director's last two projects -- the other should be Liberace starring Matt Damon and Michael Douglas), and will join co-star Sandra Bullock on the set of Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity this May.

As for Soderbergh, here's a recent interview at ThePlaylist. He also has two films out this year, Haywire (date TBC) and sci-fi thriller Contagion (21 October). EW says he joked: “I’m simply announcing my retirement early so that all the various film organizations can get their lifetime achievement awards lined up.” Noted.