Darren Aronofsky Adds Nick Nolte To Noah

With the Biblical epic due out at the end of March, you might wonder quite why (or even how) Darren Aronofsky is still adding cast members to Noah. But this new arrival is simply voicing a creature in the film, because Nick Nolte is the growly choice for the role of Samyaza, described by the director as "the watcher".

So no, this does not mean that the animals on the Ark will be chattering away like rejects from a Kevin James comedy. Nor does this mean that we’ll be seeing supernatural elements with a capital “S” (though there’s still time for a Castiel cameo, Darren; you know it makes sense).

Samyaza in apocryphal Christian and Jewish accounts is a fallen angel, ranked among the heavenly hierarchy as one of the Grigori (watchers, for you Greek scholars). Aronofsky’s reference to the Nephilim, meanwhile, points to the giants who, according to the Book Of Genesis, roamed Canaan.

It all suggests that we’re going to see a lot crammed into Aronofsky’s latest, and Russell Crowe’s **Noah **will have more to deal with that a bit of rain and an angry Ray Winstone. With Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Douglas Booth and Marton Csokas among the cast, Noah will arrive in our cinemas on March 28.