Warner Bros. Pictures

After the excruciating, unsettling "Requiem for a Dream" stirred audiences and critics, director Darren Aronofsky became a name worth watching. It was from that dark entry, which many deemed a one-time watch, that in 2006, he scaled up to an epic romance spanning centuries, with an impressive pair of A-listers at the center of a love story.

"The Fountain" ( not to be mistaken with Guy Ritchie's flop ) starred Hugh Jackman (" Real Steel ") and Rachel Weisz (" Chain Reaction ") as characters involved in three storylines that were stretched across time and space. First, a conquistador and a queen; then, in the modern era, a scientist and his dying wife; and, in the far-off future, a space traveler searching the universe to cling to his lost love.

Yet another bold and original entry from Aronofsky, "The Fountain" was a considerably cheerier transition from the final moments of his previous project.…