Darren Aronofsky's Noah has been bubbling around in Hollywood for a few years now, but the movie has taken a giant leap towards fruition with news that Russell Crowe will play the ship-building animal rustler of Bible fame.

If you were paying attention in Sunday school you'll know that Crowe's job will involve a lot of coaxing and persuasion. Noah is foretold of God's impending judgment on man's wickedness - a vast deluge that will cover the Earth - and must build an ark to preserve our place on the planet. It's essentially 2012 without the mutated neutrinos.

Aronofsky is promising a relatively straight interpretation of the Bible story, with Crowe's Gladiator cohort John Logan helping him transform it into screenplay form. "I rejoice that Russell Crowe will be by my side on this adventure," effused the director. "It's his immense talent that helps me to sleep at night. I look forward to being wowed by him every day.”

Fresh from Man Of Steel, and with Broken City and Les Misérables's sneaky Inspector Javert also upcoming, it signals the end of a reasonably quiet couple of years for the Australian.

Noah starts shooting in July in Iceland and New York. It'll be on our screens by March 2014.