February
12Danny Boyle's Next Quest
A filmmaker’s career can be paralyzed by great success as well as great failure. I was speaking with Danny Boyle the other day and found him urgently aware of this dilemma and eager to get back to work.For the past six months, Boyle has devoted his energies to selling “Slumdog Millionaire” and if the Academy ever gives an Oscar for promotion it should go to Danny Boyle. A forceful and energetic advocate, Boyle has been a star on the interview and cocktail-party circuit. He has, for example, patiently and endlessly explained that, yes, his actor was indeed dropped into a hole filled with excrement but that, during the shot, the hole was filled with chocolate and peanut butter.
Boyle has a great deal to gain from “Slumdog’s” success, but so do the denizens of Mumbai. A clause in the “Slumdog” deal will provide millions of dollars for charitable support – indeed this is one movie where the poor and hungry turn out to be the gross players, not the movie stars.
Now Boyle wants to move on and he’s diligently trying to focus on his next film. Boyle’s filmography covers a bewildering range of themes and settings – “Trainspotting,” “A Life Less Ordinary,” “The Beach,” “Millions,” “Sunshine” – and he’s had his share of misses.
He makes no bones about the fact that his most expensive film, “The Beach,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was in many ways his least satisfying. Several announced projects involving Boyle, such as “Johannesburg,” have stalled and Boyle feels his next project should take him down a fresh path.“If I were to select a topic now I think it would focus on a woman’s story,” Boyle told me the other day. “I have two daughters. My films have been ‘guy stories’ and I think maybe its time to change course.”
Boyle hasn’t zeroed in on a script as yet, but he’s looking. And that in itself should be incentive enough to studio execs and producers who want to work with this brilliant Irishman. Can the man who gave us “Trainspotting” deliver a chick flick?
I would like to learn the answer to that question.
For more of Peter Bart’s conversation with Danny Boyle, and a group conversation with Amy Adams, Penelope Cruz, Melissa Leo and Frank Langella. Tune into AMC for his new show, “Storymakers,” with his co-host Peter Guber, this Friday 13th 8PM 7C.
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I''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''m sure you''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''ll agree with me here mr. bart... i''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''ll go on the record to label Danny Boyle as "mr. diversity." If there is any working director today who can pull off a film that is completely in contrast to the genre that they are used to, it''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''s mr. boyle. he have us a great thriller...He gave us a rockstar melodrama... he gave us an ode to the heart of darkness (sad to hear that he wasn''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''t as satisfied with this one... i''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''m a huge fan of the book, and love how whenever i finish watching the beach, i feel that heart break that we all feel when we return to LAX after visiting a foreign country. and who can deny, that sunshine is the most horrifying and beautifully crafted space film of the last ** years. I won''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''t call him kubrick... but he does it well. he does it all too well. bring on the female melodrama mr. boyle... you will not disappoint.
Posted by: DA | 2/17/2009 7:35:10 AM
It is a little reductive to describe a film based on "a woman's story" as a chick flick, Mr Bart.Olivier Dahan would tell you the same.
Posted by: Rachel Marie Walsh | 2/16/2009 9:37:29 AM