Simon Beaufoy Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Danny Boyle Knows Where He'll Spend '127 Hours'
Filed under: Action », Drama », Independent », Sports », Deals », Scripts », Fox Searchlight », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand »
After a year of speculation (Will it be James Bond? Will it be Maximum City? Trainspotting 2?), Danny Boyle has finally settled on his next project. Variety reports that it will be 127 Hours, the tale of mountain climber Aron Ralston. Boyle has been loosely attached to the project since June when the LA Times reported that Boyle and Fox Searchlight had signed a long term, best friends forever deal. Boyle has already penned a treatment, and Simon Beaufoy is in talks to write the script. In this age of flashmob media stories, you might have forgotten the tale of Ralston. Like your humble authoress and Balloon Boy, Ralston hails from Colorado. He became famous for a Utah climbing accident in 2003, when an 800 lb boulder shifted and crushed his hand. Ralston was forced to choose between life and limb, and in a stomach-turning story heard around the world, he amputated his own hand with a pocketknife. In the media frenzy that followed, Ralston was hailed as a hero and as an idiot, because he had chosen to go climbing alone and without notifying anyone. It was particularly intense locally, and I still remember the heroism debate Ralston sparked in my American Culture class. (It even inspired one student's final project!) Since those heady days of early fame, Ralston has enjoyed success with his autobiography, continues to climb, and is a motivational speaker.
The director is already on the casting hunt for the part of Ralston, which Variety declares will be "a plum job" because it will force an actor to work solo for most of the shoot. Below the jump, I've embedded a video of Ralston describing his amputation. Watch it to prepare for two hours of unflinching detail, and sound off on who you think should be lucky enough to act out a very painful 127 Hours.
Is Danny Boyle Going Back to Mumbai?
Filed under: Deals », Celebrities and Controversy »
Danny Boyle, who snapped up a Best Director Oscar for last year's Slumdog Millionaire, has signed on with Fox Searchlight and Pathé Pictures for three more movies. The two companies were also behind Slumdog and its overwhelming success and have also had to deal with the ensuing fallout over what has (or in some cases, hasn't) happened to its young stars. (You can read some previous Cinematical posts on the Slumdog situation here, here, and here.)According to the Los Angeles Times, "the director already has identified a possible initial production under the first-look deal, a drama about Aron Ralston, the American mountain climber who amputated part of his arm when it was pinned in a 2003 back-country hiking accident." However, Slumdog Millionaire's Oscar-winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy told the Telegraph something a little different. The UK paper reports that Beaufoy is adapting Suketu Mehta's book Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found.
"It was only decided a couple of weeks ago, but I will be writing the script for Danny... Maximum City is a non-fiction work, so it will be a huge challenge to find the story in it. It is a wonderful book and I used it in my initial research for Slumdog. There are some great characters in the book, but no stories, so my job will be to get the fictional out of a non-fictional story."
So, which will it be for the director? And since the controversy over the fates of Slumdog's two youngest stars has never been fully addressed by the studios or Boyle to the satisfaction of movie-goers, would it be all that wise for Boyle to return to Mumbai for the setting of his next movie?
Frances McDormand Lines Up Two New Starring Roles
Filed under: Comedy », Casting »
After being second, third or fourth string in her recent roles, the ever-wonderful Frances McDormand is finally getting some top-billed goodness. The actress is set to star in two films for Focus Features. The first comes by way of a long-forgotten book by Winifred Watson -- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. Published in 1938, the book became a victim of WW2, but is now making a comeback in the UK. An adult Cinderella-like fairy tale, Pettigrew shares one day in the life of a down-trodden governess who is sent to the wrong house by her employment agency. There she meets Miss LaFosse, a cabaret singer, who gives her a taste of glamour. Adapted by Full Monty scribe Simon Beaufoy, the film will be directed by Bharat Nalluri this April in London. After dipping her toe into old-style London elegance, McDormand will be heading to New York for her fifth cinematic collaboration with husband, Joel Coen. (Previous forays have included Raising Arizona and her Oscar-winner, Fargo.) She will star opposite ladies man, George Clooney, in the Coen brothers next film, Burn After Reading. So far, all we know is that it is a dark comedy about the CIA. Hopefully, hubbie and bro-in-law Coen have written a meaty role for McDormand, perhaps with Clooney as her love interest. While she's finally broken through to the sexy, it would be nice to see her getting juicy leading men.
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