Danny Boyle is very happy to have made “Slumdog Millionaire”. The 2008 film won him the Oscar, the BAFTA and the Golden Globe Award among many others for direction that year. But more importantly, the 54 year-old English filmmaker says that its success gave him the platform to make his next film, “127 Hours”.
“A film like ‘Slumdog Millionaire' happens once in your career. In fact, had it not been for its immense popularity , we wouldn't have been able to make ‘127 Hours'. There was no pressure to make a runaway commercial hit this time! In 2006, I had decided to bring mountain climber Aron Ralston's real-life story to the big screen; now I used the power ‘Slumdog…' gave me to finance the project,” says Danny, speaking from London.
Releasing this week, the film is about the 127 hours that Aron (James Franco) spent trapped in an isolated canyon in Utah after a falling boulder traps him. Throughout his journey, Aron remembers his friends, lovers (Clémence Poésy), family, and the two hikers (Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara) he met before his accident. Over the next five days, he battles the elements and his own demons to finally discover he has the courage to save himself. He descends a 65-footwall and hikes over eight miles before finally being rescued.
“It really is an extraordinary story, I thought, after I had read Aron's autobiography Between a Rock and a Hard Place . At the outset, it appears to be a survival story, but it's more than just that. It is an incident that makes him realise the importance of the people in his life. Remembering them gave him the strength he needed,” says Danny about the film that has already created ripples worldwide, although it has a staggered release.
Shooting for the film has been quite challenging, he points out. “We shot on location in Utah for a week. The place where we filmed was so remote that the nearest road was a two-hour walk away. It was notorious for robbers. The rest of the shooting, spread over seven weeks, was inside a warehouse in Salt Lake City where we recreated the scene. No one knows this, and it's quite impossible to figure out that it's not on actual location,” says Danny.
He picked James Franco (best known for his role as Harry Osborn in the Spiderman trilogy) as he thought he did a good job in “Pineapple Express”. “I wanted someone with a whole range of emotions; someone charming and funny and sensitive, and he is all that.”
Danny, who has relied on books for his films such as “Trainspotting” and “Slumdog Millionaire” as well, , says you can't define creativity. “Books give you a starting point. You can draw the circumference, which can be then filmed. But that does not mean that I can't do an original! It all depends on how good a story is,” he confesses.
The filmmaker is now busy directing a play in London — “Frankenstein”. He has also been selected as the artistic director for the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. “It's something really different from what I have done till date.” As for working with the Mozart of Madras, A.R. Rahman, Danny says he hopes he can recreate the moment again. “He has so many different ideas, and a unique way of working. He is very down-to-earth in spite of his brilliance, and all the recognition he has. I would love to work with him again!”
