Darren Aronofsky tells MTV that he would like to revisit The Fountain at some point.

“It wouldn’t be a ‘director’s cut,’” he said — more like an alternate story told with the addition of unused footage from the first go-round. This would be a complicated project on a couple of levels, though, and it’s at least a few years away.”

For those who don’t remember, Brad Pitt pulled out of Aronofsky’s first attempt at filming The Fountain weeks before filming was supposed to begin. The eventual 2006 film was created with a smaller budget and different stars. They way I’ve understood it, scenes were changed and dropped due to the budgetary reasons (you can actually see something close to Aronofsky’s original vision of The Fountain in comic form) but I wasn’t aware that any footage had been shot from that initial effort. The film was passed over when it was released, but has found a growing cult following on DVD.

A revisited cut would be awesome, but my first thought is that Warner Bros won’t put the money up to make it happen. But who knows… The current DVD is a barebones release, and as the film’s popularity grows, there will be a growing demand for a special edition (finally combining the commentary Aronofsky recorded and put online). And with the evolution into a new format (Blu-ray), it might be a good idea for Warners to explore. Either way, it sounds like it might be years away.