I like his work. He's had a rocky career but I'm a fan. 'Shallow Grave' was a sharp thriller but a bit too cold/nasty for my tastes, 'Trainspotting' is classic, 'A Life Less Ordinary' was a major mis-fire but fun nonetheless and I truly love 'The Beach' (yes 'The Beach'). It's plain awesome. Audiences just couldn't take how half of it was lovely/breezy/pretty and then it went all dark on them. Looking forward to '28 Days Later'. It's about time a really intense & realistic zombie flick came out ('Resident Evil' didn't satisfy me, it seemed to end just when it was getting really interesting). '28 Days Later' seems to pick up from there (a deserted city stalked by the dead).
Loved Shallow Grave and Trainspotting was damn good too... Life Less Ordinary was forgivable, let's hope he makes up for that piece of shit "The Beach" (I didn't like it because I couldn't handle how half of it was all stupid/lame then it went all retarded on me).
I'm not that huge a fan of Boyle but I met him in October at the Irish Film Centre after a preview of 28 Days and he's just about the craziest, enthusiastic muthafucka I've ever met in my life. SUCH a nice man. He loves David Lynch too--thought that was weird--although he didn't understand Mulholland Drive.
Haven't seen "Shallow Grave" yet. "Trainspotting" was amazing, from "A Life less ordinary" I just watched about 30 minutes, then it was too boring for me and I put it off. "The Beach" was quiet cool, I think. I really liked it and "28 Days Later" is a great horror-film, which is highly entertaining.
I'm not a fan of his but I liked most of his films.
The Beach is bad. The material is juvenile Lord of the Flies at best and just spells out the entire drama with Dicaprio's narration through the entire film. It wasn't even a very good story before that but the narration made the whole thing terrible. 28 Days Later was a bore and pretensious and I already fought the good fight on that film. Trainspotting......I watched but can't give much of an opinion. I kept getting so bored that i ended up leaving quite often to do other things and I stopped the movie like 3 times total. Seen nothing else by him.
~rougerum
Shallow Grave 8) , :shock: , :o , :-D
Trainspotting 8) , :shock: :lol: , :o
A Life Less Ordinary :x , :roll: , :cry: , :sleeping: , :silly:
The Beach :|
28 dats Later 8)
Boyle :yabbse-thumbup:
Quote from: NEON MERCURYShallow Grave 8) , :shock: , :o , :-D
Trainspotting 8) , :shock: :lol: , :o
A Life Less Ordinary :x , :roll: , :cry: , :sleeping: , :silly:
The Beach :|
28 dats Later 8)
Boyle :yabbse-thumbup:
Best reviews ever.
28 Days Later Director Opens a Cold Storage
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Danny Boyle, who directed the independent summer hit 28 Days Later, is in talks to direct Warner Bros./Imagine Entertainment's Worcester Cold Storage. There is no start date yet.
The project (aka "The Perfect Fire") is an adaptation of Sean Flynn's book "3000 Degrees: The True Story of a Deadly Fire and the Men Who Fought It." It was initially an Esquire magazine article that Flynn wrote in 2000 about a fire that claimed the lives of six Worcester, Mass., firefighters in December 1999.
Scott Silver (8 Mile) adapted the screenplay, which is being produced by Brian Grazer.
01. Trainspotting A++
02. Shallow Grave A++
03. The Beach B
04. A Life Less Ordinary C+
The thing with The Beach is that it still has its moments [it opens perfectly, for example], but it also happens to stray much too far from the original text, which is perfect as is, and didn't need any changes [at least, not the changes Boyle made...].
Quote from: The Silver Bullet01. Trainspotting A++
02. Shallow Grave A++
03. The Beach B
04. A Life Less Ordinary C+
The thing with The Beach is that it still has its moments [it opens perfectly, for example], but it also happens to stray much too far from the original text, which is perfect as is, and didn't need any changes [at least, not the changes Boyle made...].
the beach got pretty messy as it went on.....
The film or the book?
film. i've never read the book.
Well, I agree, it gets messy. But as I said:
Quote...it also happens to stray much too far from the original text, which is perfect as is, and didn't need any changes.
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In Danny Boyle's films to date -- Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary and The Beach -- humans have proven themselves to be jealous, vengeful and severely flawed creatures, so what does he decide to do in his latest horrorshow? Kill them all off and start over. At the outset of 28 Days Later, a rogue band of animal activists liberate a laboratory filled with infected monkeys, unleashing an epidemic of "Rage" upon the population. 28 days later, a man awakens naked and alone in a deserted London. Well, as he'll soon find out, "alone" isn't technically the right term.
28 Days Later owes a great deal to such apocalyptic nightmares as Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys and George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, although Boyle claims he looked to other films for ideas. "It's funny, actually, because I tried to stay away from the zombie films because the writer of the piece was such a fan of them." Indeed, Boyle's zombies are lightning fast predators, less like the lumbering corpses of genre classics than adrenalized humans stripped to their animal core. So where did Boyle's ideas come from? Read on to see the five films the director credits with influencing his style.
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Apocalypse Now
(1979; dir: Francis Ford Coppola, starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando)
Apocalypse Now, which is probably my favorite film of all time, is probably an appropriate one to start with. Deeply imperfect, vain though it is, it's still a true masterpiece because it combines all the best of American cinema and European cinema. The thing about apocalypse films of any kind is that they're impossible to end, and we found that on 28 Days Later as well. In our case, the challenge was wrapping up the story, but I think on Apocalypse Now, Coppola just couldn't stop shooting. After The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson said that when you do something that manic, you have to be dragged away from it in the end. On those large-scale projects, you never finish. Somebody has to take the responsibility to drag you away from it. But that wasn't our problem. Our problem was how do you end it when you've killed 58 million people? Where do you go after that?
Alien
(1979; dir: Ridley Scott, starring: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver)
The original Alien is an absolute masterclass in terror and dread. That film was a big influence on me for 28 Days Later. For every filmmaker since that's dealing with fear and dread in any way, you look to that film and what it does. It's quite interesting the way Ridley Scott takes that classic ingredient of a small group of people [hiding from an enemy they can't see] and makes it feel like a massive film. The wonderful thing about dread is that the fear of what's around the corner is very particular for each individual character. You hope you connect with something that people fear, which helps you extrapolate the film into a bigger context and makes it more than just a fighting film in the end.
Amélie
(2001; dir: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, starring: Audrey Tautou, Mathiue Kassovitz)
The next one is Amélie just because I'm making a film at the moment called Millions that's influenced to an extent by Amélie, just in its generosity. It's a little bit in the style, but the comparison has more to do with the tone, except it's not about love. It's sort of about money in a way. [According to Variety, Millions tells the story of "two boys in Liverpool who stumble across the haul from a bank robbery and can't decide how to spend it."] I loved watching Amélie because it felt so generous about people. The director had come off a big American film -- Alien 4, as it happens -- and he wanted to make a [lighter] film. It's interesting that when you come off those big commercial features, you want to make something a bit generous, I think. Don't know why. I came off The Beach, and I made 28 Days Later, which is a really gruesome film, but I also wanted to make a very generous, warm film as well.
Atlantic City
(1980; dir: Louis Malle, starring: Burt Lancaster, Susan Sarandon)
Atlantic City is a wonderful example of a European director moving to America and making a wonderful, moving film with American actors. It's about this old gambler, Burt Lancaster, and his relationship with Susan Sarandon. It's a very beautiful film, filmed at the time they were demolishing a lot of the old Atlantic City and building the new casinos. Plus, it has one of the sexiest scenes ever in cinema. It opens with Susan Sarandon squeezing lemon juice all over her body. She's naked, and she's caressing her body with lemon juice, observed by this old man across the street, and it's the weirdest moment until you find out later that she works in a fish restaurant.
Au Revoir les Enfants
(1987, dir: Louis Malle, starring: Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejto)
My final choice is an incredible French film directed by the same man about a bunch of children in wartime France. It's about the Holocaust, but it's told through a classroom, and it's the most moving, tender, beautiful, sad film about the Holocaust. Nobody dies in it, nothing like that happens. It's all very tiny, but it's the most amazing film. The public probably would not pick up on this, but as a director watching it, you notice that there are maybe a hundred kids in it, and every single kid is in the film. Normally, when you watch films set in schools, the foreground characters are in the film, and the background are just sort of there for the day. You can see that they're not concentrating, they're not mentally in the film, but in Au Revoir les Enfants, they're all there. You can see that in their performances. And it is the most unbombastic film about the Holocaust that you could possibly imagine, and yet it is also the most effective one as well. It only deals with the subject in a particular way, but it's the most wonderful film.
Not surprising that all of these are much more recent than the other directors' picks, and seem to have been chosen mostly for the modernity and impressiveness of their styles. Boyle's work is markedly more spotty and shallow than the other directors who participated.
Quote from: godardianNot surprising that all of these are much more recent than the other directors' picks, and seem to have been chosen mostly for the modernity and impressiveness of their styles. Boyle's work is markedly more spotty and shallow than the other directors who participated.
..yeah he doesn't have the "greatness" of the other ones..but i would still put him a cut above most.....and i like the fact that AN was on their.....its just as timeless as anything else IMO...(style or not).......
Boyle & Garland Creating Sunshine
Source: Variety
28 Days Later director Danny Boyle and its writer, Alex Garland, are back in business with U.K.-based DNA Films and its financial partner, Fox Searchlight. Garland has just sold his spec sci-fi thriller Sunshine, with Boyle attached to direct.
Described as reminiscent of Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1953 pic The Wages of Fear, which followed men hired to transport an urgently needed shipment of high explosives without the equipment that would make it safe to do so, Sunshine follows a similarly fraught mission in space.
While no budget has been set for the film and no cast determined, Fox Searchlight confirms it will likely be in production by year's end. Sunshine would film in Europe and is expected to carry a budget of between $40 million and $45 million.
does anyone know what's going on with the sequel of Trainspotting?
Quote from: mollydoes anyone know what's going on with the sequel of Trainspotting?
The book has been optioned by the same producer. John Hodges is working on the script.
I hope they don't make the sequel, really.
Quote from: mollydoes anyone know what's going on with the sequel of Trainspotting?
http://xixax.com/viewtopic.php?t=216
thank you very much, Mr MacGuffin.
(see?, it's not so hard)
Quote from: mollyI hope they don't make the sequel, really.
Out of curiosity, why?
The book may not be as groundbreaking as Trainspotting was but it's still good and it remained true to the characters. I think it would make a good (and controversial) film, making an interesting shift in tone similar to the shift from Truffaut's The 400 Blows to Stolen Kisses.
:evil:
chuchimselfo said that
yes, it was very funny, Scotish aside-very well written, Nikki is one of the best characters i've read about . but i don't want this movie... something tells me it wouldn't work.
Quote from: molly:evil:
chuchimselfo said that
My mistake. Obviously, I'm new here.
Quote from: chuckhimselfoyes, it was very funny, Scotish aside-very well written, Nikki is one of the best characters i've read about . but i don't want this movie... something tells me it wouldn't work.
I can sort of understand that. It's a lot more conventional of a novel versus Trainspotting's being an Altmanesque collection of short stories. You can't really pick and choose the best parts for the film without losing a good subplot or two.
But if Boyle and company are up for it, I'd like to see it. Trainspotting is my favorite English-language film of the last 10 years and I don't think they'd muck this one up; even if they did, I doubt it would tarnish the brilliance of Trainspotting.
I'm sure they would do a pretty good job, all of them. But i want Trainspotting to remain untouched in (kind of ) the same way I wanted MiB left alone after I saw the sequel...
not point of comparison but it's an idea.
Harrelson, Harris & Crudup Heating 3000 Degrees
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Ed Harris and Woody Harrelson are set to star in 3000 Degrees, a fact-based drama about a fire that turned a century-old storage building in Worcester, Mass., into a cinderbox and claimed the lives of six firefighters in December 1999.
The Hollywood Reporter says the drama is an adaptation of Sean Flynn's book "3000 Degrees: The True Story of a Deadly Fire and the Men Who Fought It." The book grew out of Flynn's July 2000 Esquire article on the subject. Scott Silver wrote the screenplay, which is being produced by Brian Grazer.
Billy Crudup also is in negotiations to join the Warner Bros. project, which Danny Boyle (28 Days Later) will direct.
I've read 3000 degrees. It's good, real good. Not something I would expect Danny Boyle making into a movie though, but I welcome it big time.
Warner Bros. & Imagine Halt 3000 Degrees
Source: Warner Bros. Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures and Imagine Entertainment have announced that they will not go forward with plans to make the feature film 3000 Degrees.
The companies said this morning that "the process of making a film of this size and scope is complex and demanding, and requires the support and participation of many groups, including various firefighting organizations and a number of individuals. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we no longer have such support. We have therefore decided not to move ahead with this project at this time."
Ed Harris, Woody Harrelson and Bill Crudup were to star in the fact-based drama, which was to be directed by Danny Boyle (28 Days Later). The story was about a fire that turned a century-old storage building in Worcester, Mass., into a cinderbox and claimed the lives of six firefighters in December 1999.
In the Future With Danny Boyle
Source: Edward Douglas March 4, 2005
Manchester born director Danny Boyle first got attention in this country over ten years ago with his thriller Shallow Grave starring Ewan McGregor. He solidified his status as a film-lover's filmmaker with the Scottish drug movie called Trainspotting, also starring McGregor, that has gone onto become a film classic to many. After a few more projects that weren't received nearly as well--including one that starred Leonardo DiCaprio fresh off the blockbuster Titanic-Boyle returned to form in 2003 when his post-apocalyptic "zombie" thriller 28 Days Later put him back on the map.
Now, Boyle returns with his next film, Millions, a movie about two boys that find a bag full of cash and need to get rid of it before it's worthless once British currency is permanently replaced by the Euro. It's a very different film for the director, but one that could possibly find him an even wider and more diverse audience, if only because it's his first film he's made that has received a PG rating. ComingSoon.net talked to Boyle while he was in New York preparing to kick-off the New York International Children's Film Festival with the film, but he sat down to talk to us about his other projects.
On returning to England, he will be getting back into preproduction work for his next film Sunshine, which will explore the realms of science fiction. "We hope to start in July," he told us. "It's kind of a space mission movie, in which they're taking a bomb the size of Kansas to reignite a section of the sun that's failing. It's got those rules of sci-fi, and it has a mystery attached to it as well. There's a mission that's failed seven years earlier and nobody knows what's happened to the crew, and at the end, they get to meet the source of all life in the universe. That has got to be worth 10 or 12 bucks or whatever you guys pay." They haven't done any casting for the film yet.
Rumors have been flying around for years that Boyle planned on making a sequel to Trainspotting called Porno, which he confirmed, sharing his thoughts on the idea. "It's not like an easy cash-in sequel. It's like what they're like in twenty years time when they're middle-aged, but it's a long-term project way down the line. The challenge for those actors--and who knows how their careers will map out--will be to come back to characters that they've played and then to play them with twenty years of your own experience laid on top of them. It should be interesting. The idea of it is not to attract a new audience to 'Trainspotting'; it's to play it to everybody who watched it when it first came out, because they also would have that twenty years of ups and downs and what have you."
Boyle was a bit enigmatic about the status of his relationship with his Trainspotting star Ewan McGregor after the actor spoke out about being replaced by Leonardo DiCaprio for Boyle's fourth film The Beach, but he said that it was pleasant and thought that it would be okay.
Boyle will not be directing the planned follow-up to his hit film 28 Days Later, dubbed 28 Weeks Later, but he will be on board as an "executive producer." "It's a very strong, simple idea again," he explained, "that England has basically been abandoned, and there's been no life there for six months. The Americans arrive to start it back up again, to reboot it...especially the franchises that are going to waste." He didn't think that Cillian Murphy or Naomie Harris would be back in it, because they're too busy.
The strangest project that Boyle's name has been attached to is Alien Love Triangle, originally planned as part of a trilogy but then supposedly scrapped when the other two parts were turned into full-length films. Recently, the movie showed up on Miramax's 2005 release schedule again, so we asked Boyle if he thought it was really going to be released. "It's going to have to now, because Miramax are jettisoning all of their product" he joked. "It's been done for longer than three years now, but it's like 25 minutes long, so it's kind of like an orphan, because it doesn't have any partners. It was meant to have two other thirty-minute films to go with it and to be released. When the other two they commissioned got turned into full-length films, Miramax's instinct was that they wanted us to turn this into a full-length film, but we always thought it was ideal as it is. We tried to come up with two other parts to go with it, but we never did satisfactorily."
Still, he was glad to tell us the premise for what seemed like it would be a rather short film. "It's very funny and silly," he told us. "It's got Courtney Cox, Heather Graham-Roller Girl from 'Boogie Nights'-and Kenneth Branagh as the Englishman, and it's about aliens. Courtney Cox plays a male alien inside Courtney Cox's body, which is an interesting place to be we'd all agree, and Heather Graham is a female alien who arrives to take Courtney Cox back." He didn't think that anyone should waste ten dollars if the movie is released in its 25 minute form.
Boyle also mentioned that Millions screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce is writing an adaptation of The Odyssey, which he thought was a "barking mad idea". Boyle said that he's usually not interested in historical or period films, because he likes modern films about modern life, but Boyce wants him to read the script when he finishes.
Millions opens in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, March 11, before expanding across the country. Look for more with Danny Boyle and his two young stars in the next week or two.
My two cents: Millions is quite charming - a very nice family film.
i will (hopefully) be seeing it monday with Boyle in attendance.
Keep 'em guessing
Director Danny Boyle can shift film styles like drivers shift gears. Source: Los Angeles Times
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Having first bounded onto the international filmmaking scene with the twisted money-mystery "Shallow Grave" and the drug-soaked excitement of the epoch-defining "Trainspotting," British director Danny Boyle has subsequently continued to leap from genre to genre, style to style. As a follow-up to his terrifyingly scabby, digital-video horror film "28 Days Later," a surprise hit, he has reemerged with the sweetly endearing, kid-friendly "Millions."
Working with "28 Days Later" cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, this time employing an eye-popping color palette and a handful of nifty visual effects, and writer Frank Cottrell Boyce, best known for his work with filmmaker Michael Winterbottom ("24 Hour Party People"), Boyle has crafted a film that emulates a child's point of view without condescension. In telling its story of two brothers, one who has visions of saints while the other sees only a world of pound notes and Euro coins, Boyle has drawn out two well-rounded performances from his young stars, Alexander Nathan Etel and Lewis Owen McGibbon.
After "Trainspotting" you made "A Life Less Ordinary" and "The Beach" and then seemed to retreat from Hollywood filmmaking. Are you happy with your current relationship to the notion of Hollywood?
Yeah, very much so. I've learned a lot about what I'm good at. I'm still ambitious, but I like surprising people by being a bit off the radar and then popping up with it finished. I really admire people who can work with big sums of money, and I love watching those movies. The big thing you learn is that when you've got a budget that size, it increases the number of people who work on the film. I like it much smaller, a family-type atmosphere among the crew. You can't learn everybody's name on a big crew. So you learn what film gets the best out of you as a director.
Your films are all very different from one another, especially moving from "28 Days Later" to "Millions." Are you ever concerned about losing whatever audience you might build up from film to film?
One of the terrors of making a film is you think you're making the same film again and again. I worry that there are ingredients in "Millions" that are a bit like "Shallow Grave," I worry my films are too similar. I'm always amused when people start interviews by saying, "Wow, this is so different." It obviously comes across like that, but you don't always feel that when you're doing it. We were lucky "28 Days Later" was a big hit because you get a lot of credits, and we kept the budget down on this so we were able to do what we wanted. We didn't have to worry about that clash of taste which was involved in juxtaposing that film and this film. Although I'm still the same person and they feel coherent to me, I'm sure it'll be difficult for some people to get on board.
Right from the start, when the boy has his first vision of a saint, the audience knows this is a different kind of kid's movie. And then when the saint starts puffing away on a joint, you know it's really different.
The joint was a really interesting question. The temperature of the times in Western life, especially here but in the U.K. as well, is very anti-tobacco, anti-cigarette. The question was, is it going to be a cigarette? What it's going to be? I said I think it should be a joint, she should light up a joint. The whole thing she says is, it doesn't matter up there — everything's easy. You only have to worry about that kind of thing down here. I just thought it was lovely, they don't stand on dogma. And I thought they would be very relaxed like that, and that's how I always imagined it. My mom was a very strict Catholic, a very devout Irish Catholic, but as a person she was so easy about everything. So I felt the saints should be portrayed like that. St. Peter swears a bit.
What was it like working with the two young boys? Did you have to recalibrate your directing style to get the best performances out of them?
You think you're going to guide them through and as soon as you do that, you can see your fingerprints all over them. It's horrible. We did some things early on, and when I took a look at it, it was like I was stuffing things into their mouths, like I had them by the back of the neck. It's fake. They're so gossamer-fine because they're not actors, especially the little one, that if you interfere you can spot it really quickly. So you have to find a different way to let the film flow through them.
Okey read. Seems unfinished.
Yes, well, suddenly the journalist died from a massive heart attack.
Thanks for being sympathetic.
Yeoh May Appear in Danny Boyle Movie
Former Bond girl Michelle Yeoh will appear in a science fiction movie called "Sunshine" directed by Danny Boyle of "Trainspotting" fame, a magazine has reported.
The script is written by Alex Garland, who wrote the novel "The Beach" which was made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Yeoh said in an interview published in the September issue of Prestige Hong Kong magazine.
"They have an amazing team ... I've wanted to work with these people for a long while," Yeoh was quoted as saying.
She reportedly said she plays a botanist. The movie was to start filming in late August in a London studio, Yeoh said, according to the report.
Yeoh, an ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, also said filming "Memoirs of a Geisha," made the action star think she should be more feminine.
"Doing a movie like 'Memoirs' was good in the sense that it tickled me into thinking, 'Well, maybe I have to be a little more feminine.' But after two hours of that, I said, 'Fine, OK, I did that,'" Yeoh was quoted as saying.
Yeoh previously appeared in the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies" and the martial arts hit "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
The Weinsteins Reveal Upcoming Projects
Source: Variety
Danny Boyle, director of Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, is being brought on to direct Solomon Grundy, based on a Dan Gooch book which is described as a literary fantasy novel based on the classic poem. The book has been adapted for the screen by Robert Nelson Jacobs, who is also working on the Marvel Comics adaptation of Werewolf By Night.
Boyle unleashes 'Tower' power
Thriller to be set in Johannesburg skyscraper
Source: Variety
Danny Boyle will helm "Ponte Tower," an uncompromising thriller set entirely in one of the tallest skyscrapers in Africa.
The 54-storey cylindrical Ponte Tower in Johannesburg, South Africa, was considered one of the city's most desirable addresses and a powerful symbol of white affluence under apartheid when it was built in 1975. Local papers even dubbed it "heaven on earth."
But despite breathtaking views the hulking urban landmark disintegrated into a wind-ravaged hellhole infected by gangs, guns and drugs likened by some to the Tower of Babel.
Michael Thomas ("Scandal," "Backbeat") is writing the script, which is loosely based on a book by German novelist Norman Ohler about a girl from Soweto who moves to Ponte Tower at the end of apartheid and comes under the control of a charming druglord.
The project has attracted lottery funding from the U.K. Film Council's Development Fund and is planned as a co-production with South Africa.
Gina Carter, co-producer on "24 Hour Party People" and producer on "Bright Young Things" and "Snowcake," produces alongside neophyte producer Frank Kunster.
Boyle, Thomas and Carter will shortly be travelling to South Africa to develop the project with on-the-ground assistance from Moonlighting Films in Johannesburg.
Boyle has previously directed successful big screen adaptations of tomes, including Irvine Welsh's "Trainspotting" and Alex Garland's "The Beach."
Danny Boyle tackles 'Slum Dog Millionaire'
Exclusive: The 'Sunshine' helmer tells us all about his next project.
Source: Timeout.com
I spoke to the always affable Danny Boyle yesterday for our 'Sunshine' podcast, and when the subject turned to his next film, it seems I had my facts wrong. Rather than making South African-set thriller 'Ponte Tower' (as previously reported), Boyle is about to start work on a very different sort of film, as he himself explained.
'It's called 'Slum Dog Millionaire', it's based on a true story, and it's about a kid from the slums of Mumbai, who has nothing – he's ill educated, he's illiterate – and he goes on the Hindi version of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' and wins it. And they can't believe that he's done it. They think he's cheated. They think he's getting signals from embedded chips in his body, or that there are people coughing in the audience, but he won it.
'What's clever about the film is that the structure shows you how he knows the answers. Certain things have happened to him in his life and they happen to ask questions about those things. But the real reason he's on the show is to get in touch with the girl he loves but has lost in the chaos of Mumbai, and all he knows is that she watches the show religiously. So he's not even there to win the money, but that's when you win I suppose, when you're not even trying.'
Simon Beaufoy ('The Full Monty') has written the script, with filming set to start on location in Mumbai soon. And as for 'Ponte Tower', that film is still very much on Boyle's horizon, with Michael Thomas currently working on the script.
I admire his desire to be diverse but this is better left to Mike Newell. Still, he could knock this one off, make it ten times better than almost anyone else would, and then go and do Ponte Tower.
Exclusive: Danny Boyle Getting Animated?
ComingSoon.net just spent some time talking to director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy about their rags to riches love story Slumdog Millionaire, which is the toast of this year's Toronto Film Festival.
When asked what he might do next, Boyle was slightly tentative because he's not sure whether it would happen or not, but he hopes to reunite with his "Millions" screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce in doing an animated movie based on Terry Pratchett's children book "Truckers", which is the first part of his "Bromeliad trilogy."
The books are about a race of tiny people from another world called Nomes, living and trying to survive among humans, who discover their secret history, which prompts them to try to return home.
If the project does get rolling at DreamWorks as planned, it would be an interesting new challenge for the filmmaker coming off of his ambitious Bombay-based epic, but Boyle realizes how complicated doing an animated film would be, which would be one of the deciding factors in whether he does it or not.
"It's a weird different discipline, it's very strange," he admitted to us during our interview earlier. "You're more like a ringmaster, kind of organizing this huge army of illustrators who can change the movie. It's really weird. They often do scripts and they have no gags in them at all, but then you see the finished film and it's full of funny gags, and they say that it's not in the script, that all comes through the process of the animators. It's like learning the skill of letting certain ones of them off their leash to do the gags."
Slumdog Millionaire is scheduled to open in select cities on November 28.
EXCLUSIVE: Danny Boyle May Direct Second '28 Days Later' Follow-Up, Plays Coy On Setting
Just like the diseased themselves, it seems like Danny Boyle's popular don't call them zombies horror movie series will keep coming and coming and coming, the director confirmed to MTV News.
Well, maybe.
"There's a bit of discussion going on about it at the moment," Boyle said of what I'm going to start calling "28 Months Later," the third in a series which began with "28 Days Later" in 2002 and continued with "28 Weeks Later" last year.
We wouldn't put it past Boyle to blow us away again, but for the life of us we can't figure out to continue a franchise which seems to acceptably conclude with each installment without becoming narratively ridiculous. Turns out, Boyle's not so sure either.
"I have an idea for it [but] I've got to present it and see what people think really because it might be silly really," he laughed.
What's the idea? Where's the film set? Boyle won't say, insisting that discovering his secret is "part of the joy of it, really."
On the matter of whether or not he would direct the film, though, the "Slumdog Millionaire" helmer was much less coy, admitting that "it was a possibility."
Danny Boyle On '28 Months Later': It's Not Called '28 Months Later'!
Source: MTV
Recently, reports spread across the net that "Slumdog Millionaire" helmer Danny Boyle was considering hopping back into the saddle to direct "28 Months Later," the second sequel to his smash 2002 film about a viral outbreak and its devastating consequences.
True enough, Boyle told MTV News, re-iterating what he told us back in September.
Only, seriously people, Boyle laughed, stop calling it "28 Months Later"!
"It don't think it will be called '28 Months Later,' that's all I can say," Boyle insisted of the sequel, remaining maddeningly coy on other details.
The first film in the series explored the aftereffects of a viral outbreak on London. The second film focused on what happened when the military tried to repopulate the area after presumably containing the threat. The third film? Who knows, Boyle said, revealing that he has an idea but that nothing is set in stone.
"I mean, it's absolutely not written yet, but there's a prospect of an idea and the way these ideas start is you just suddenly get a little glimpse," Boyle confessed.
What else? Not to go all Columbo on you here at the end, but Boyle, well, he does have just one more thing he wants from you: for the love of all that is holy, stop calling his infected monsters zombies.
"There was an article in the paper the other day by Simon Pegg. He wrote this article begging people to let zombies stumble again and not run. He was trying to turn the tide back because everyone has zombies running now. He's like, 'No, please. Can we go back to the old days when you knew you could get away from them?' That was sort of the thrill. These idiots didn't lock themselves in car and died," Boyle laughed. "That's why I keep saying, 'It's not a zombie movie, everyone. It's not a zombie movie!' Because the aficionados - it's sacrilegious what you're doing by changing things like that. They're infected. They're not zombies."
Danny Boyle's 'Solomon Grundy' Delayed Due To Perceived 'Benjamin Button' Similarities
Source: MTV
Thanks to both overwhelmingly positive responses and its feel-good message, Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" has already been pegged by many prognosticators as an early Oscar favorite, alongside other yet to be released films like "Revolutionary Road" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."
But no matter what happens between now and the February Oscar telecast, David Fincher's "Button" has already gotten the best of Boyle, the director smiled, forcing him to temporarily abandon his previously announced next project.
Boyle's "Solomon Grundy," based on the popular nursery rhyme character who was "born on a Monday" and "died on a Sunday" (and who bears no relation to the hideous D.C. zombie villain and occasional foe of Superman and Batman), is momentarily shelved, he revealed exclusively to MTV News, because of perceived similarities to "Button," which follows the life of a man who lives his whole life backwards.
"It's sort of a crossover with 'Benjamin Button' only they've done it backwards, so it really fell apart because of the competition from that one," Boyle confessed of the project. "It is a wonderful idea, and it's got really potential still. Maybe. No one knows what 'Benjamin Button' is going to be like, so maybe it won't be similar to that at all. Maybe it will feel really different to that, so [that 'Solomon'] might come alive again."
Wiki tells us that the nursery rhyme is a sort of riddle for the seven ages of man, itself a reference to Shakespeare's "As You Like It" ("All the world's a stage," etc etc.) Infancy, childhood, lover, old-age – you get the drift.
Should the movie ever get made, though, don't expect a Button-esque transformation of a big star through all those stages, Boyle said, referring to Brad Pitt's turn in the upcoming film. In fact, don't expect ANY star to carry the movie.
"'Solomon Grundy' is a story about a guy who ages seven days. He lives his whole life in seven days. He's born on a Monday, christened on a Tuesday, grew up on Wednesday, marries on Thursday, took on Friday, and it was like that," Boyle explained. "And we were going to cast seven different actors to play the part because he starts at zero and ends up at eighty-five."
Danny Boyle mum on Asia for next film
'Slumdog' director keeps quiet on first of three-pic deal
Source: Hollywood Reporter
SHANGHAI -- Danny Boyle won't say whether his next film will be in Asia or take on an Asian angle, but the "Slumdog Millionaire" director seems to be whooping it up on his first visit to China as much as he did in India.
Boyle, who has not previously seen festival jury duty, said he accepted Shanghai's invitation to be president of its competition jury because "Slumdog Millionaire" was allowed to be widely released in China.
"I feel it as a courtesy and a responsibility," he said. "Also, the world is obsessed with this city and on a personal level I wanted to come and see."
During the festival he has been energetic, accessible and, despite seeing three films per day, has often been spotted hanging out in the lobby of the adjacent hotel.
Boyle describes the jury process as "valuable, because we are helping to build profile and careers," but he admits to being "concerned about not being too bossy. All directors have a tendency to be bossy."
So far, he has also managed to kept quiet about his next project which will come under a recent three-picture deal with Fox Searchlight and Pathe. While they have optioned rights to Suketu Mehta's "Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found," a book that also served as a reference while shooting "Slumdog," Boyle said that will not be first up.
"I'm looking forward to going back to Bombay, what a great place for a thriller, it has so many elements," he said.
Nor is Boyle put off by the tumultuous reactions within India to his picture or the media circus that has surrounded the film's treatment of the child actors. "We'll use some of it in the next pictures," he said. We've made a lot of decisions (about trusts and 10-year education plans for the kids) which we'll stick to."
En route to China's business capital he stopped off in Beijing and Hong Kong, where he met up with an old pal from school. "I've just seen three amazing Asian cities," he said. "There's an appetite for cinema in Asia that Hollywood doesn't recognize yet," he said while discussing the region's onscreen talent.
On Tuesday, Boyle and fellow jurors took time out from the screening rooms to visit the filming of period actioner "Bodyguards and Assassins," shooting an hour outside the city on a backlot where Hong Kong's Central district, circa 1905, has been rebuilt on a full scale. "The scale and ambition on display were amazing. This (set) could be the difference between getting a film made or not," he said.
Boyle said he has been little changed by "Slumdog" bandwagon. "It seems to have changed everyone else, I continue in the same vein," he said. "I was lucky to have a success. And I continue to aim to be ambitious, to promise myself 'don't be careful,' and to enjoy a spirit of recklessness."
As to the films seen he and the jury have seen at the halfway mark: "Quality simply surges out."
Boyle, Searchlight Firm Mountaineer Tale
Source: Variety
Fox Searchlight and Danny Boyle have firmed plans to make their next collaboration "127 Hours," a film that tells the story of mountaineer Aron Ralston.
After his right forearm got pinned for nearly five days under a boulder during a climb in Utah in May, 2003, Ralston used a dull knife to amputate the limb. He then scaled a 65-foot sheer wall and hiked out before running into a family that gave him water and food. He was finally rescued by helicopter.
Boyle will direct the film, with production to begin next year for a late 2010 release. Pic is financed and distributed by Searchlight in partnership with Pathe.
The film reteams the financiers and also the creative team behind "Slumdog Millionaire," which won eight Oscars.
Boyle has written a treatment, and Simon Beaufoy is in talks to write the script, and Christian Colson will produce. Pic marks Boyle's fifth collaboration with Fox Searchlight, following "Slumdog Millionaire" (which the distributor picked up from Warner Bros.), "Sunshine," "28 Days Later" and "Millions." Boyle directed "A Life Less Ordinary" and "The Beach" at 20th.
He's repped by WME.
Boyle is now looking for an actor to play Ralston, a plum job considering the character is alone for most of the film, much the way that Tom Hanks was during "Cast Away." Ryan Gosling had been rumored to be in contention, but sources said nobody is set at this point.
This could be great. It feels like the coen's To the White Sea or the part that we didn't see of ddl crawling back to camp from the gold mine in TWBB. Like, i wish the coens or pta were doing this but i have absolute faith in Boyle even though i absolutely did not like slumdog. hopefully this a return to form.
Franco to Star in Boyle's 127 Hours
Source: Production Weekly
James Franco ("Spider-Man" films) will star in Fox Searchlight Pictures' 127 Hours, to be directed by Oscar winner Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire).
The film tells the story of mountaineer Aron Ralston, whose right forearm got pinned for nearly five days under a boulder during a climb in Utah in May 2003. He used a dull knife to amputate the limb, then scaled a 65-foot sheer wall and hiked out before running into a family that gave him water and food.
Filming is set to begin early March in Utah.
'Slumdog' director to stage 'Frankenstein'
Source: AP
LONDON - "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle is lined up to mount a stage adaptation of "Frankenstein" at Britain's National Theatre.
The theater announced the production Thursday as part of its 2010-2011 schedule.
Boyle got his start in theater in Scotland before making films including "Trainspotting" and "28 Days Later." He won a best-director Academy Award for "Slumdog," one of the movie's eight Oscars.
The play, adapted from Mary Shelly's Gothic horror story, will be staged late this year or early in 2011.
Other new productions announced by the National include a production of "Twelfth Night" with Peter Hall directing his daughter Rebecca Hall, and a series of events next year to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James version of the Bible.
Danny Boyle lined up to direct 2012 Olympics opening ceremony
Source: The Independent
When the Chinese film director Zhang Yimou was enlisted to orchestrate the inaugural ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, the world waited with excitement and later praised the breathtaking results.
Now, Britain appears to have adopted China's tried and tested method, as speculation mounted yesterday over the claim that the Oscar-winning British film director Danny Boyle would be overseeing the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Organisers are believed to have approached Boyle, who directed the international box-office hit Slumdog Millionaire, to direct the opening ceremony, which will take place at the newly constructed Olympic stadium in Stratford.
Ever since the spectacular opening of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, directed by Yimou, British organisers have hoped to emulate it with their own production in two years' time.
A spokeswoman from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) said she could not confirm Boyle's involvement, or the rumour that organisers were in logistical talks with him.
She added that no contracts had yet been signed and that they were in talks with a number of people about availability. "A lot of talented people would like to be involved that may have other commitments," she said.
However, there is a mounting belief that Boyle is seen as the answer to organisers' dreams. An unnamed senior source was quoted as saying: "We want the most imaginative ceremony the world has ever seen".
Another insider added: "Nothing has been signed yet, but we do fully expect him [Boyle] to do it."
Boyle, 53, has spoken of his admiration for the Games in the past and issued no denial over this latest claim. The director, who lives near the site of the Games in east London, praised the competition. "It feels like it's a project that will bed itself in the East End and do a lot of good," he said.
When asked if he had been approached by Locog, he reportedly answered: "I can't say any more. It would be lovely, wouldn't it?"
Many see Slumdog Millionaire, which was set in Mumbai, as proof of his ability to bridge cultures, which would help to portray Britain as an open, diverse society in 2012.
The film dramatised the transformation of a poverty-stricken Mumbai boy by the Indian adaptation of the television quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and was described by critics as "visually astonishing".
However, it is a moot point whether London can match the immense scale of the inaugural ceremony in Beijing. London's ceremony is expected to attract a live audience of about 80,000 and be seen around the world on television.
Meanwhile, further speculation is growing over whether the 13-strong acrobatics group Spellbound – who won the reality television competition Britain's Got Talent on Saturday night – will also be involved in the opening ceremony of the Games.
i have no doubt he can do a good job, he's a workaholic and always gets things done, but it's kinda sad that Britain looked up its big list of local directors and DANNY BOYLE was the best they could find that would compete with EPIC specialists like Yimou (and Spielberg before he pulled out).
i bet they wish David Lean was still around.. i can't even think of any living british director who is used to grand cinematic set pieces on an epic scale.
maybe nolan.
http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/07/13/early-buzz-danny-boyles-127-hours/
Early Buzz: Danny Boyle's 127 Hours
Posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 by Russ Fischer
We've got some brief news about Danny Boyle's film 127 Hours, which is in post-production now, and some very good early buzz to deliver. The news is casting-related — thanks to the official film synopsis from Fox Searchlight (reproduced after the break) we know that Clémence Poésy from In Bruges is playing the girlfriend of mountain climber Aaron Ralston (James Franco). Previously, we'd heard that Amber Tamblyn had the role, but she instead plays another hiker.
Beyond that, some reports have surfaced from the first test screening, and they are overwhelmingly positive. Keep in mind that these reports are based on a version of the film that is not finished — the sound, music and FX were are not done, and the edit will almost certainly change — but if the basic impressions can apply to the finished cut, 127 Hours may be a very interesting picture when released this coming winter.
From The Film Stage comes one reaction:
In telling the true story of a climber who is forced to amputate his arm after being trapped for five days, Boyle and James Franco certainly do a lot with a little. The cinematography by Boyle regular Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak is beautiful and inventive. The score by Slumdog Millionaire composer A.R Rahman is strong as are a few well selected pop songs. The presence of supporting players is kept to a minimum as Franco aptly commandeers what is essentially a one man movie. The intensity of his situation is tempered by a good sense of humor, including a wonderful reference to Scorsese's The King of Comedy.
A selection of short comments culled from Facebook and IMDB is also available, and they collectively praise the performance of James Franco, the choices made by Danny Boyle and the work of his paired cinematographers. The intensity and claustrophobia of the film come up, as does the fact that Franco holds most of the movie on his own, split between footage that shows him trapped by a boulder, and footage that Franco, as Ralston, "shoots" of himself talking to his camera.
Don't put too much weight on any qualitative analysis of the film at this point, but the early word is certainly encouraging. We've been quite interested in the film since it was announced, and reports suggest that Danny Boyle and his cast and crew may live up to the potential inherent in the story.
The official synopsis:
127 HOURS is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston's (James Franco) remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah. Over the next five days Ralston examines his life and survives the elements to finally discover he has the courage and the wherewithal to extricate himself by any means necessary, scale a 65 foot wall and hike over eight miles before he is finally rescued. Throughout his journey, Ralston recalls friends, lovers (Clemence Poesy), family, and the two hikers (Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara) he met before his accident. Will they be the last two people he ever had the chance to meet? A visceral thrilling story that will take an audience on a never before experienced journey and prove what we can do when we choose life.
Read more: Early Buzz: Danny Boyle's 127 Hours | /Film http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/07/13/early-buzz-danny-boyles-127-hours/#ixzz0xOXiG700
Danny Boyle Will Return To Direct The '28 Days Later' Franchise; Alex Garland Says The Franchise Is "Frozen"
Source: The Playlist
With Rights Issues Pardon our old banner image, yes, we realize the next installment of the "28 Days Later" series will not be called, "28 Months Later." Danny Boyle's on-again, off-again flirtation with directing this third film (an unknown title that Boyle hasn't revealed), is apparently back on again. In 2008, our last update, he said, "I mean, it's absolutely not written yet, but there's a prospect of an idea and the way these ideas start is you just suddenly get a little glimpse." In 2007, Boyle told MTV that yes, he really thought directing the film would be a possibility. Then he said the same in September of 2008. Then in October, it looked like Boyle would again hand over the reigns to another director like his did with, "28 Weeks Later," and just deliver the idea and executive-produce again. Then in November 2008, he once again said, "I'd certainly like to [direct it again]. "I feel the idea is quite a strong idea, and it could well involve directing it. Yeah, absolutely." Now DreadCentral are boasting a pretty benign "exclusive" that touts nothing other than the fact that Boyle is "planning to return to direct" the picture with no other details. We'd love to see it, but frankly, we'll believe it when we see it. At this point in Boyle's career —an Academy Award winning director for "Slumdog Millionaire" with another nomination for "127 Hours" on the way —it seems like he has bigger fish to fry rather than return to a series in a genre he has already tackled. Fairly omnivorous in taste, unless the scope is gigantic... well, we'll believe it when we see it is our take on all this. As for the 2nd installment, "28 Weeks Later" it doesn't break a lot of new ground, but it is entertaining and a if you want to see some up-and-coming actors before they became stars --Jeremy Renner, Rose Byrne, and a very early Imogen Poots appearance, who yes is not a star yet, but will be --you could do a lot worse. An interesting update by way of a reader (thanks for the fyi). Apparently just last week, screenwriter Alex Garland commented on this proposed third film and he said it's in a tangle of rights issues at the moment. "When we made '28 Days Later,' the rights were frozen between a group of people who are no longer talking to each other. And so, the film is never going to happen unless those people start talking to each other again. There is no script as far as I'm aware." Maybe something changed very recently?
Danny Boyle To Squeeze In 'Trance' Before Summer Olympics
BY MIKE FLEMING | Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: Director Danny Boyle will follow his Oscar-nominated 127 Hours with Trance, a thriller that will shoot in London this September. I'm told it's an art heist gone wrong, and it's got the dark, sexy, hard-edged tone of Boyle films like Shallow Grave and Trainspotting. The film reunites Boyle with his 127 Hours and Slumdog Millionaire producing partner Christian Colson, and they are in talks with Fox Searchlight and Pathe for funding and worldwide distribution. It wasn't clear whether Boyle would make a film before directing the opening ceremonies of next summer's Olympics in London. Here's how he'll handle it. The film will be shot in September --Boyle and Colson have begun talking up British and U.S. talent --and after the film's shooting is completed, Boyle will put it on a shelf. He'll devote himself exclusively to the Olympics beginning next January. Next August, he'll return to the film, and cut it with the anticipation that Trance will be ready for theatrical distribution in March 2013. The film will be in the mid-teen-budget range, which has proven to be Boyle's wheelhouse. Slumdog Millionaire cost $15 million, while 127 Hours cost $18 million. Those films grossed $450 million or so between them. Boyle's repped by WME and UK-based Independent Talent.
Danny Boyle to Direct Feature Adaptation of 'Smash and Grab' Documentary (EXCLUSIVE)
Fox Searchlight and Pathe will co-finance
Source: Variety
Danny Boyle seems to enjoy the heist genre as he is attached to direct a feature adaptation of the documentary "Smash and Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers" for Pathe and Fox Searchlight.
Pathe and Fox Searchlight will co-finance the movie with Boyle's longtime producing partner Christian Colson, who will produce through his Cloud Eight Films banner.
The documentary, released this past summer, revolves around the world's most successful diamond thieves who take the audience into the dark world of the international jewel trade. The footage for the doc was captured using real-life surveillance footage as well as interviews with several of the gang.
Boyle most recently directed "Trance," which dealt with the heist of a famous painting and has since been looking for his next project. There were rumors that Warner Bros. was interested in Boyle for "American Sniper" before putting Clint Eastwood on it.
Sources say Boyle saw "Smash and Grab" and became very interested in turning it into a movie, which led his long-time distributor making a push to come on board. Searchlight has been home to most of Boyle's films going back to "28 Days Later" so it makes sense that the film landed here.
Danny Boyle in Talks to Direct Steve Jobs Movie, Leonardo DiCaprio Eyed to Star (Exclusive)
"The Beach" director is said to want to reteam with DiCaprio on the Aaron Sorkin-penned biopic of the iconic Apple co-founder.
Moving fast to replace David Fincher on its highly anticipated Steve Jobs movie, Sony Pictures is in talks with Danny Boyle to direct the biopic of the late Apple Computer co-founder. Boyle is said to have approached Leonardo DiCaprio to star.
As The Hollywood Reporter revealed earlier this month, Fincher fell out of the project due to his aggressive demands for compensation and control. Fincher had wanted Christian Bale for the title role, though the actor was not signed.
The film is to be produced by Scott Rudin and written by Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network), based on the best-selling biography of Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Film 360's Guymon Casady and Mark Gordon are also producers on the film.
The Jobs film could mark a reteaming of DiCaprio and Boyle, the star and director, respectively, of 2000's The Beach. Neither has previously worked with Sorkin.
Sources caution that deals are not done. And DiCaprio has committed to star in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's thriller The Revenant for New Regency starting in September.
The departure of Fincher dashed hopes of reuniting the team behind Social Network, which grossed $225 million worldwide in 2010.