CHASING ETERNITY.

Byline: - Glenn Whipp

Four years ago, Darren Aronofsky (``Requiem for a Dream'') had to pull the plug on his epic adventure-romance ``The Fountain'' when Brad Pitt bailed just as filming was to begin. Undaunted, Aronofsky rewrote the movie, scaling back its budget, but not its scope, and ultimately getting it made with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz in the lead roles.

``It's very similar as far as the story goes,'' Aronofsky says, comparing the two scripts. ``The tone and the color have changed.

``That's because you're staring at the actors for 95 percent of the movie. Different actors bring different emotions. They bring themselves. It can't help but be very different.''

``The Fountain'' doesn't lend itself to an easy summary, but we'll let Weisz give it a go:

``It's kind of an adult fairy tale about life, love and death. The `fountain' refers to the Fountain of Youth. It's set in three time zones: 15th-century Spain, in the Court of Seville, where I'm Queen Isabella and Hugh is a conquistador.

``Then it's set in present-day America, and I'm dying of cancer and Hugh's my husband, a scientist trying to find a cure.

``Then it's set in the future in deep space, and it's the same guy and my ghost. It's very unusual. So it's sci-fi in a sense, but it's very passionate and emotional and raw and metaphysical and psychedelic.''

Says Aronofsky: ``The Fountain of Youth is our oldest story, running from Gilgamesh through the Bible to the tree the Buddha sat underneath to Ponce de Leon. And now we have `Nip/Tuck.' It's no longer mythical, is it? We're actively working on life extension and more obsessed with youth than ever. That's never going to change. People want to be 28 forever.''

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Photo:

(color) A scientist (Hugh Jackman) tries to find a cure for his wife's (Rachel Weisz) cancer in ``The Fountain.''