Paramount Pictures was very worried about how this movie and its religious theme would be treated properly, so they screentested three different rough cuts of this movie, all without the approval and knowledge of writer, producer, and director
Darren Aronofsky, and all of the versions met with resounding criticism from Christian audiences. It has, since then, led to countless controversy and debate on its correspondence to the Biblical text found in the Book of Genesis. Aronofsky said that he was very unhappy with Paramount Pictures testing alternate versions of this movie that were not "true to his vision": "I was upset, of course. No one has ever done that to me. I imagine if I made comedies and horror films, it would be helpful. In dramas, it's very, very hard to do. I've never been open to it. I don't believe that." After much discussion and compromise, the studio announced on February 12th that Darren Aronofsky's version, not any of the studio's alternate versions, was to be the final cut of this movie. "They tried what they wanted to try, and eventually they came back. My version of the film hasn't been tested. It's what we wrote and what was green-lit", Aronofsky said. It was not test screened until post-production was finished, as per Aronofsky's wishes.
