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The Fountain
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 The Fountain Production NotesTagline: What if you could live forever?
What if you could live forever? The Fountain is an odyssey about one man's eternal struggle to save the woman he loves. His epic journey begins in 16th-century Spain, where conquistador Tomas (Hugh Jackman) commences his search for the Fountain of Youth, the legendary entity believed to grant immortality.
As modern-day scientist Tommy Creo, he desperately struggles to find a cure for the cancer that is killing his beloved wife, Isabel (Rachel Weisz). Traveling through deep space as a 26th-century astronaut, Tom begins to grasp the mysteries that have consumed him for a millennium. The three stories converge into one truth, as the Thomas of all periods -- warrior, scientist, and explorer -- comes to terms with life, love, death and rebirth.
At once sweeping and intimate, “The Fountain” is a story about love and coping with mortality, which unfolds over three vastly different time periods. Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky got the idea for his screenplay when he realized that, although many cultures have stories about the quest for eternal life, relatively few films have been made about the search for the Fountain of Youth.
“The desire to live forever is deep in our culture. Every day people are looking for ways to extend life or feel younger,” suggests Aronofsky. “Just look at the popularity of shows like ‘Extreme Makeover’ or ‘Nip/Tuck.’ People are praying to be young and often denying that death is a part of life. Hospitals spend huge sums of money trying to keep people alive. But we’ve become so preoccupied with sustaining the physical that we often forget to nurture the spirit. So that’s one of the central themes I wanted to deal with in the film: Does death make us human, and if we could live forever, would we lose our humanity?”
To construct a story that could effectively communicate that theme would require an innovative concept. “What started out as a rough sketch on a restaurant napkin back in 1999 has been through many incarnations,” says the writer/director. “Darren had this idea of a box-within-a-box-within-a-box-structure before we even knew the name of our lead character,” expands producer Eric Watson.
Indeed Aronofsky found himself inspired. “I’d wake up in the middle of the night and look at my stacks of research and think, ‘I have to make this film; it’s in my blood.’” Aronofsky designed a tale that would unfold in three distinct eras. But with so many incarnations of the Fountain of Youth existing throughout history and mythology, he had to consider which one would best represent the film’s ideologies. Co-story collaborator Ari Handel explains, “As we started to conceive the story we researched Mayan culture. We looked at the Bible, too, and found that, in many narratives, the Fountain of Youth is embodied by something living, something organic or nourishing.”
With that in mind, Aronofsky created the film’s Tree of Life, which serves as the Fountain of Youth in the conquistador’s story. In the 26th century, Tom is traveling to Xibalba, a distant nebula, which becomes the film’s futuristic version of the Fountain.
“One of the first things that attracted me to this script was the spirituality of it,” notes producer Iain Smith. “And because that spirituality isn’t specific to any one belief system, it translates into a kind of magic.” As the various mythologies combine, a new myth is created, one that is both otherworldly and familiar by design.
One Man, One Love, One Quest, One Destiny
With a solid thematic guide established, Aronofsky set out to design the motivation of a character who would passionately pursue the Fountain. Thomas Creo, as conquistador, scientist and astronaut has a singular drive and passion. But to tell the story of a man who refuses to accept his fate, or the fate of those he loves, would present a unique challenge.
“It’s difficult to tell a story about the quest for immortality in the present alone. That’s why Thomas’ story takes place in the 16th, 21st and 26th centuries,” says Aronofsky, who goes on to qualify, “but ‘The Fountain’ isn’t a time travel movie in a traditional way. It’s more like three interlocking time periods, where the characters embody three different parts of the same person.”
Although the thousand-year span makes Thomas’ tale epic in scope, time is also his greatest enemy. All three of the film’s stories deal with a race against the clock for the sake of love. Tomas the conquistador is charged with finding the Fountain of Youth to protect his Queen from a vengeful enemy who has sworn to destroy her. Tommy the scientist is trying to find the cure for his wife’s cancer before it consumes her. And Tom, who has lived well beyond the normal human life span, is searching for a way to be reunited with his lost love.
“At its core, ‘The Fountain’ is a very simple love story about losing someone and what that teaches you,” offers Aronofsky, noting that, “in every incarnation, Thomas loves Izzi so profoundly that he will do anything to keep her alive. What he doesn’t realize is that by relentlessly pursuing a way for them to be together forever, he’s actually missing out on her life.”
The character of Tomas / Tommy / Tom is complex. He loves without limits; he seeks control where there is none. He needs to learn acceptance. The actor playing him would need incredible range and stamina to give him life.
Aronofsky found that actor in Hugh Jackman, who rocketed to fame with his portrayal of the feral, mutant superhero Wolverine in the “X-Men” film series before taking Broadway by storm, playing singersongwriter Peter Allen in “The Boy from Oz.”
“I had a great feeling of hope when I first read the script,” Hugh Jackman says. “The story presents a modern myth. As I understand it, myths are stories told to help us understand the meaning of life. And ultimately those issues aren’t explainable, so we come up with stories that just get into our hearts and make us feel like we understand. These fables may not make scientific sense, but somehow they explain the world to us. That’s what ‘The Fountain’ did for me. It exists in all these fantastic worlds, but Thomas’ struggles are very human.
“In some articulation, Thomas appears in every scene of the film, and in essence, all three roles are the same man. I’d be blessed to play any one of these parts in separate films, so to get to play them all at once was an amazing opportunity I couldn’t pass up. That’s why I slept outside Darren’s door until he gave me the job,” he laughs.
Jackman’s enthusiasm didn’t go unnoticed. “We knew this was going to be a daunting role due to the very difficult physical and emotional transitions’,” recalls Eric Watson. “The actor who took the part had to be ready for that kind of commitment.”
Ironically it was his role as a singing-dancing theater legend—not the roughhewn superhero Wolverine—which convinced Aronofsky that Jackman was right for the part. The director first approached the actor about playing Thomas Creo after seeing him perform live in “The Boy from Oz.”
“Hugh had so much presence and charisma in the show,” says Aronofsky. “He was performing live in front of 3,000 people and yet you felt like you were right next to him. I gave him the script backstage and he called me the next morning and said he wanted to do the film. We were all very passionate about telling this story, so when Hugh connected with it so quickly we knew he was going to be perfect.”
Watson adds, “Hugh was committed to his show for another eight months so we had to wait for him. During that time, Darren and Hugh worked together every week on Hugh’s only day off to evolve the character. So when we got to set, Hugh was Thomas Creo.”
“The character was fantastic,” says the star. “Tomas the conquistador has incredible drive and an unbelievable passion. His devotion to his Queen is single-minded. When she charges him with finding the Fountain of Youth, he’s like an arrow shot from a bow. He’s going to find it. He’s dogged, uncompromising.”
The same can be said about Tommy, the Conquistador’s 21st-century counterpart. “Tommy is a scientist. He looks at death as a disease that can be cured,” Jackman continues.
“His wife, Izzi, is trying to tell Tommy that maybe dying is somehow part of our genetic code, and maybe going through it is part of our growth as spiritual beings. All Tommy knows is that he has a mission: His wife is dying, he loves her and he wants to be with her, so he must eradicate death.”
Jackman believes that same love consumes his 26th-century character, Tom Creo. “Once Izzi is gone, we find Tom floating in space with the Tree of Life. In a way, he’s transferred his love for Izzi to the Tree. She lives there as long as the Tree is alive. He has finally realized he couldn’t save her, but he will save the Tree. Izzi told Tommy the story of Xibalba—that when it explodes the souls living there would be reborn. Tom is hoping that by traveling there with the Tree, he and Izzi will be together again.”
It’s the final testament of a loved one, and Tom puts his faith in it. But even as he travels through space, Tom is trying to cheat death. It’s been nearly a thousand years and he still hasn’t comprehended the lesson his wife is trying to communicate.
“Tommy knows that death is real; he understands that it happens,” says Jackman, “but he wants to know why it has to happen? Hundreds of years ago the average human life expectancy was 40; now it’s 80. So why can’t it become 200, or 400? Why can’t we solve this problem of life ending with death?”
Pursuing the answer to that question ends up leading the character to his greatest regret. “Ultimately, Tom is heartbroken that he wasn’t able to save Izzi, and even more distraught that he didn’t get to spend quality time with her while she was alive. But he’s a doer, a fixer, so he keeps pushing forth.”
Aronofsky agrees, “It takes Tom much longer than Izzi to get there, but eventually he’s going to understand this journey.”
Not only would Jackman have to deal with intricate emotional transitions to play the triple roles, but he would also have to be physically adaptable for each phase of the film. The arc that takes place in Spain is challenging, as Tomas battles his way into a lost Mayan temple to face a soldier with a flaming sword. For the future sequences, Jackman had to be much leaner. He studied tai chi and yoga for 14 months to be ready for the film. The futuristic role would also require the actor to shave his head.
Declares Aronofsky, “Hugh was willing to give us everything we needed to bring Tommy to life, but in order for the story to really succeed, you have to believe that Tommy and Izzi love each other completely.”
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Rachel Weisz as Izzi Creo in The Fountain.
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