The Fin Atlantic International Film Festival announced that their closing night gala presentation, Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” has been pulled from the festival. The film will now be replaced by Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking.”
Is this another red flag? I sure hope not. I’m highly anticipating Aronofsky’s latest, which is said to be a chamber piece based on Samuel D. Hunter’s play. However, it is already not going to Telluride and New York. More times than not, when a fall film skips both of those festivals then it’s a bad sign.
There has been buzz about Brendan Fraser’s performance in the film as a 600-pound man eating himself to death. Maybe an inevitable discourse of “fat shaming” will occur after the film premieres at Venice. First Showing’s Alex Billington is also saying that the cast of “The Whale” will not be doing many — if any— press interviews at Venice.
“The Whale” only has 1 regular (non-premium) public screening at Toronto. This film is really being kept from the public, for some reason. It also has no 2022 release date …
The film is set to shoot in fall 2027. The idea would be to release it in December 2028, timed to Trump's exit from office. Oh, and it's now Warner Bros.' indie label, Clockwork, that's backing the film.