It’s been no sleep till Brooklyn this month for busy filmmaker Darren Aronofsky.
The Oscar-nominated director — who just unveiled his latest film, “The Whale,” at the Venice Film Festival — shared his new children’s novel, “Monster Club,” with students at his former junior high in Coney Island on Thursday.
To welcome Aronofsky back to his alma mater, the talented kids of Mark Twain I.S. 239 adapted scenes from “Monster Club” into a stage performance. They also put on an art exhibition inspired by characters from the tome, and welcomed the director and his coauthor Ari Handel to the school with a student string quartet playing.
“Monster Club” follows a group of fictional students whose favorite role-playing game comes to life in Coney Island and its surroundings.
“I had such a great time when I was a student here at Mark Twain, that when I wrote ‘Monster Club,’ I wanted Mark Twain [school] to be a major character in it,” Aronofsky told a group of cheering 8th graders who enthusiastically packed the school’s auditorium.
“Mark Twain was a great place for me and such a great school… it’s been a few years since I’ve been here, I’m really glad to be back,” he said.
Aronofsky and Handel had first visited the school together six years ago when they were researching a movie version of “Monster Club.” But their screenplay ultimately turned into the book that’s out this week from HarperCollins.
Aronofsky’s latest movie, “The Whale” received a lengthy standing ovation in Venice, and gave its star Brendan Fraser — who plays a 600-pound man in the film — buzz as an Oscar frontrunner, Variety reported.
Also at the starry screening were “Fleabag” creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, comedian Nick Kroll and Huma Abedin, among others.
The Mark Twain kids did perhaps an even better job asking Aronofsky questions at their school Q&A than the Venice film fest press corps.
When asked about his inspiration for the book, Aronofsky told them, “The inspiration was my time here, when I was your age… You remember when you showed up in 6th grade how scary it was that first day? It was a scary thing to go from elementary school to middle school…. The book is really about the moment when you’re leaving elementary school, and you suddenly have more responsibility.”
He also told his young fans about following a creative vision, “I’ve made eight movies now, and there’s always a million people who are going to say no to you. I had a producer that would say, ‘The more people that say no to you, the more you know you’re doing something right.’ Because if you’re doing something that’s very different and very original, people won’t get it…. but the only way you can do something original is if you believe in it more than anyone else.”
The director of edgy epics “Black Swan” and “The Wrestler” also joked: “Has anyone seen any of my movies here? Oh, you shouldn’t be watching them. They’re not for you…. ‘Noah’ was PG-13, so some of you can watch it… and I think ‘The Fountain’ might be PG-13.”
Aronofsky was introduced by the school’s principal, Karen Ditolla, and he and Handel stuck around after the Q&A to sign countless copies of the kids book for students.
Aronofsky and his crew were seen after the school appearance grabbing lunch at venerable Brooklyn Italian eatery, Gargiulo’s. He also appeared on Wednesday at Brooklyn’s Books Are Magic in support of the new tome, and headed to stores including The Strand and McNally Jackson later on Thursday.