Director Danny Boyle's Next Film will be 127 HOURS the True Story of Aron Ralston
Danny Boyle has picked his next film project, 127 Hours. For those of you who don't know who Danny Boyle is, he won an Oscar for last year's Best Picture, Slumdog Millionaire, he also directed a great sci-fi film called Sunshine, both are a must see if you haven't seen them yet.
127 Hours tells the true story of mountaineer Aron Ralston. While he was on a canyoneering trip in Blue John Canyon (near Moab, Utah), a boulder dislodged, crushing his right forearm and pinning it against the canyon wall. Ralston had not told anyone of his hiking plans and knew no one would be searching for him. Assuming that he would die, he spent five days slowly sipping his small amount of remaining water while trying to extricate his arm. He eventually ran out of water and began to drink his own urine, carved his name, date of birth and presumed date of death into the sandstone canyon wall, and videotaped his last goodbyes to his family.
After five days of trying to lift and break the boulder, a dehydrated and delirious Ralston prepared to cut off his already-dead arm by levering it against a chockstone, which snapped the radius and ulna bones. Using the dull blade on his multiuse tool, he cut the soft tissue around the break. He then used the tool's pliers to tear at the tougher tendons. Although he never named the make of the tool other than to say it was not Leatherman, he did describe it as "what you'd get if you bought a $15 flashlight and got a free multi-use tool". After freeing himself, he was still eight miles from his stick shift truck, and he had no cellular phone. He had to rappel down a 65-foot sheer wall, then hike out of the canyon in the hot midday sun. While hiking out, he encountered a family of three on vacation from the Netherlands, who gave him water, two Oreo cookies, and all the food that they had. They then alerted the authorities. He was ultimately rescued by a helicopter search team. His arm was retrieved by park authorities and removed from under the boulder. It was cremated and given to Ralston. He returned to the boulder and left the ashes there.
Yeah, sounds like a pretty intense hellish experience, so it should make for a good film, and it seems like a story Boyle will do a great job telling. I remember reading about this and was in awe at what this guy did to survive. Boyle wrote a treatment for the film, and they are looking at bringing on Simon Beaufoy to write the script. This would bring back together the same creative team that brought together Slumdog Millionaire.
The film will go into production next year, and Fox Searchlight will be targeting a late 2010 release. The film will be Boyle's fifth collaboration with Fox Searchlight, following Slumdog Millionaire, Sunshine, 28 Days Later and Millions.
What are your thoughts on Boyle's next project?
Source: Variety