Russell Crowe's Divisive Biblical Epic Noah Finds New Home on Paramount+

It has been more than a decade since Russell Crowe headlined a big-budget studio tentpole. He has, however, played supporting parts in movies such as Thor: Love and Thunder and Kraven the Hunter. Next up, Crowe will offer support to Henry Cavill in the Highlander remake directed by Chad Stahelski. Crowe mostly plays character roles in small-scale films these days, and delivered two diametrically opposite movies toward the end of September. The first, The Weight, was released in theaters, while the second, Unabomber, debuted on Netflix. Audiences keen to revisit Crowe's glory days are in luck; his last movie as a leading man in a studio tentpole was recently added to the Paramount+ library.

The film was released in 2014, and it quickly became the subject of controversy owing to its religious themes. The epic was banned in several Middle Eastern regions and China for religious reasons. It served as something of a blank check project for director Darren Aronofsky, who was coming off the Oscar-winning blockbuster Black Swan. This was his passion project, and he assembled a particularly solid cast to support Crowe — Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, and Logan Lerman, among others.