Danny Boyle Zeroes In On His Next Project

After Danny Boyle won his Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire, there was a lot of speculation about what he might do next. Porno, the sequel to Trainspotting? Another turn behind the camera for one of those 28 Weeks Later movies? A return visit to India? All have been mentioned as options, but it looks like none will emerge as his next film.

The director spoke to Digital Spy (via The Playlist) and said very little: "I can't quite tell you about it because it's not quite all signed, sealed and sorted out legal-wise. It's based on a true story so there were complications to do with rights, that kind of stuff," Boyle says, thereby eliminating the first two options. "We're close to solving it and hope to be shooting in March next year."

Click to read more ...

Danny Boyle Signs Three-Year Deal with Searchlight

Fox Searchlight did not become the new standard for lower budget Oscar bait by accident. It is a well run boutique studio that has placed a film in the Best Picture race in four of the last five years, winning the highest award in film for Slumdog Millionaire.

Now Fox Searchlight has locked up the director of Slumdog, Danny Boyle, for a three-year deal, a production agreement that also includes Pathe Pictures. So Boyle will now have whatever projects he chooses to do in the next three years co-financed by the two studios, which, as you can imagine, is a good thing for a director like Boyle who prefers to work a little outside the mainstream. We recently reported that Boyle was looking at adapting Maximum City, a critical sort of non-fiction guide to Mumbai that he used to fill in the gaps while working on Slumdog, but The Los Angeles Times says he might also make a gritty bio-pic about mountain climber Aron Ralston, who got pinned by a rock in 2003 and amputated part of his own arm so he could escape.

Click to read more ...

Danny Boyle Heading Back to Mumbai

According to The Wall Street Journal, Danny Boyle will return to Mumbai, India for his next film. Boyle has bought the film rights to the 2004 book, Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by journalist Suketu Mehta.

Mehta's first book is described as "a searing account of Mumbai - part personal essay, part travelogue" and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005. The surprise is not that Boyle would want to adapt the book but rather that he would want to do it so soon after making the most famous, profitable and likely the most influential India-based film ever made. In interviews in support of Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle cited Mehta repeatedly for his insight into the world Boyle was trying to depict. “Maximum City became my Bible, really. I took it with me everywhere," Boyle admitted last December. "I felt part of the time we were adapting that.”

Click to read more ...

You're the Next Contestant on 'Slumdog Price is Right'

I'm really enjoying this movie spoof, and can't imagine for the life of me why it took so long to get here. I mean, Slumdog Millionaire prominently features a game show, so how have we not seen something like Slumdog Password or Slumdog Match Game '76 or something?

What have instead of those is Slumdog Price is Right, which I found to be slightly funnier in the execution than in the setup. I don't think it needs much more of an explanation; who doesn't know how The Price is Right works after all these years? I do need to point out, though, that I found this at /film, and it originally comes from College Humor.

Click to read more ...

'Twilight,' 'Slumdog' Lead MTV Movie Award Nominees

I'm so glad I'm not whatever age you have to be to post something like "EVEN IF YOUR TEAM JACOB VOTE FOR ROB!!!!!" in the comment section of an article announcing the MTV Movie Award nominees. Yes, Twilight earned seven nominations, one more than Slumdog Millionaire for the most of the year, and an overwhelming amount of the comments so far are overly enthusiastic calls to vote for Twilight to win everything.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though; that movie was a huge hit with MTV's target demo (and beyond), but I wonder if it will sweep, and if it doesn't, how many unreasonable girls will start crying? I remember when this awards show began, it was kind of a hip alternative to the stuffy award shows at the beginning of the year. It had edge and attitude and was really irreverent. That was the point. Now it's the Teen Choice Awards. Here are the nominees:

Click to read more ...