Russell Crowe had better start growing out his beard: he's officially signed on to play Noah in Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic.

The actor tweeted back in February that Aronofsky was thinking of him and Liam Neeson for the Noah's Ark flick, and that Crowe was "eyeing [Aronofsky] right back ... Liam's eyeing both of us ... and Paramount are eyeing us all, including you. Whole lot of eyeing."

Now, it looks like all that eyeing has paid off.

"I’d like to thank Paramount and Regency for backing my team's work to breathe new life into the biblical epic," Aronofsky said via statement. "I rejoice that Russell Crowe will be by my side on this adventure. It's his immense talent that helps me to sleep at night. I look forward to being wowed by him every day."

The role of the world's most famous ark builder was previously offered to Christian Bale, who turned it down due to scheduling conflicts. (Michael Fassbender was also mentioned for the part.) Currently, IMDb has Crowe's "A Beautiful Mind" co-star Jennifer Connelly, along with Saoirse Ronan, listed as "rumored" cast members.

The movie is set begin production in July, in Iceland and New York, with a planned release date of March 28, 2014.

Crowe appears next as Jor-El in "Man of Steel" and is currently filming "Les Miserables."

[via THR]