The film is slated to pick up twenty years later, which offers up some pretty terrific opportunities to give these Digby, Sick Boy, and the rest of the gang with hilarious success stories. Maybe Sick Boy founded Twitter, and Digby was the sole British member of SEAL Team Six.

Spud, of course, will have become an executive producer of HBO’s Luck, who has fallen upon even harder times as the show just couldn’t keep itself from killing horses, so he actually ends up in jail, because horses just deserve better than the treatment that that show gave them.

7 photosRosario Dawson

In Trance, Dawson will play a woman involved with both an art thief (McAvoy) and his spurned accomplice (Cassel), developing what Deadline calls an “unusual relationship” with both men. It will begin filming this fall before Boyle is called upon to direct the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies in London. Will Dawson’s turn here restore her credibility after acting opposite Kevin James in The Zookeeper? I’m kidding, I’m kidding. Of course it won’t.

Pegg, whose credibility is safe for the next 10,000 years or so, is garnering even more points by starring in A Fantastic Fear of Everything. He will play a children’s book author who, in making the transition to crime novels, does research on Victorian serial killers. In doing so, the already cowardly Pegg becomes paranoid that everyone around him is a potential threat to his safety. The film is directed by Crispian Mills, the former lead singer of indie darlings Kula Shakur. Simon Pegg has had nary a misstep in his film career, save for Run Fatboy Run and How To Lose Friends and Alienate People. But he’s done like 600 movies since then, so who really remembers?

4 photosCameron Crowe Tweets 'We Bought A Zoo' Pics #SadFamiliesAndLions

It’s reported that James McAvoy is locked for the lead role of Simon and his X-Men: First Class bestie Michael Fassbender will not be joining the film as believed previously. Boyle has his eye on Firth to fill the role vacated by Fassbender and wants Scarlett for a major supporting role. Though no info about plot or character is given, we can assume they’re all playing sexy thieves who with their fast hands and forbidden passions will steal your diamonds, and perhaps more.

No formal offers have gone out yet but it’s said “who Boyle wants, Boyle gets.” Except Michael Fassbender. (Cinema Blend)

James McAvoy is close to teaming up with fellow Brit Danny Boyle for Trance, a heist thriller that would see him playing a character named Simon who is stuck in the middle of a botched bank job. Michael Fassbender was first attached to this project, but apparently he put it aside when he decided to do every other movie in Hollywood. (Variety)

Robin Williams is also circling Gently Down the Stream, a rom-com that would feature Robert DeNiro and Diane Keaton as a divorced couple that pretends to be married for the sake of their kids. Robin Williams will play an obnoxious priest, just like he did in License to Wed. Old Robert De Niro never would have put up with Williams’ B.S., but times hav echanged. The film will also star Susan Sarandon, Topher Grace, Amanda Seyfried, and Katherine “Buzzkill” Heigl. (Showbiz 411)

Finally, Tom Wilkinson will be gracing The Lone Ranger with his presence as a railroad tycoon, which one can safely read as “bad guy. I am now openly rooting for Wilkinson to prevail over both Armie Hamer’s Lone Ranger and Johnny Depp’s Tonto. I’m tired of seeing Johnny Depp prevail, and Armie Hamer will always be a snooty Winklevoss in my eyes. I hope whatever damsel Wilkinson ties to the train tracks gets run the hell over. (Variety)

Fassbender is in talks to join Danny Boyle’s thriller remake Trances. He would play the leader of a gang, who teams up with a low-level employee at an art auction house to plan a robbery. However, in true “Flintstones” fashion, the assistant guy gets hit in the head and wakes up with amnesia, which threatens the whole kooky scheme. It’s a remake of a 2003 TV movie of the same name by British director Joe Ahearne.

Trances plans to film this fall, unless Boyle gets hit on the head or something. (Hollywood Reporter)

That sounds pretty good to me – an added bonus being that Trance is a really cool title. Another bonus is that Trance will continue Boyle’s partnership with producer Christian Colson, who also produced 127 Hours and Slumdog Millionaire.

Don’t get too excited, though – because of Boyle’s obligations as the director of the opening ceremonies of next summer’s Olympic Games, Trance won’t be coming out until March, 2013. How many pun-headlines about the word “trance” will we see before then? (Deadline)

Luckily, you’ll be able to see this version of Frankenstein on the big screen even if you’re nowhere near the stage. UNluckily, if you’re in the US, you won’t be able to experience one of the most interesting aspects of the production: The first showing of the play, on March 17 (the one that’s getting a US release), will have Dr. Frankenstein played by Benedict Cumberbatch and the Monster by Johnny Lee Miller. Then, a week later, the actors will switch roles and do the play again. This trailer suggests this, by showing the Monster and his creator morphing into one another. Subtext! (via The Playlist)

“If I write it well enough, he’ll direct it,” Beaufoy told BBC America. “It’s a very extraordinary mix of gangland Los Angeles—Compton, the Watts Towers area—really, really rough, a lot of shootings. And the difference with this particular piece of work is that these gangs can shape-shift at will into packs of dogs. So it’s a police procedural mixed with a werewolf film. If you get it wrong, it’s a disaster. If you get right, it will be extraordinary.”

Sounds like a real gamble, but an interesting one at that. The film has been compared to Boyz in the Hood, so I would like to make the humble casting suggestion of Ice Cube as every single character. And if Boyle really wants to be generous, he’ll cut off his arm at the end. (The Playlist)

Danny Boyle’s new film, 127 Hours, premieres tomorrow. James Franco stars as Aron Ralston, a climber who is forced to amputate his own arm after it is crushed under a rock. In honor of Ralston’s remarkable tale of survival, we here at Screen Junkies came up with a list of other memorable films that feature scenes of amputation. Some of them are disturbing, others are lighthearted, but all of them contain badly mutilated limbs, and that’s the important part. Enjoy!

The Star Wars Trilogy – Various Characters

Before I started writing this article, I never realized how many arms go missing in the Star Wars trilogy. Sure, everyone remembers Luke losing his hand toward the end of The Empire Strikes Back, but the list goes on. In fact, Luke’s not even the only one to lose a limb in Empire, provided you count the snow monster on Hoth. In A New Hope, Ponda Baba loses his arm to Obi Wan, and in Jedi, Vader loses his hand (again). This doesn’t even count all the limbs that are lost in the prequels, but honestly, who gives a damn about the prequels? However, one thing is for certain: George Lucas has a severed-limb fetish. What a sicko.

Evil Dead 2 – Ash

In Evil Dead 2, Ash’s hand becomes possessed and attacks him in a Stangelove-esque fashion. But as the clip above clearly demonstrates, it’s Ash who has the last laugh…sort of.

Blade – Crease

If you somehow manage to disarm a vampire hunter, it’s not a good idea to play around with his weapons. Just ask Crease from the original Blade movie. After disarming Blade, he ends up getting “disarmed” himself by a booby-trapped sword. Well, it was more of a hand than an arm, but still. That’s no picnic. Although I think limbs grow back for vampires, so in the greater scheme of things, it’s not that big of a deal.

The press junket for 127 Hours was informative beyond our private interview with Danny Boyle. The real Aron Ralston and the filmmakers discussed the film, already generating controversy for its graphic depiction of a self-amputation. Ralston had to sever his own arm when he was trapped in a canyon for five days.

Even Ralston wants everybody to know it’s all good. He was happy to make the sacrifice. “They’re going to walk into this movie thinking it’s the story of the guy who cut his arm off,” Ralston said. “I hope they realize it’s about the guy who was smiling when he cut his arm off. It was a euphoric experience for me because it was going to get me back to what was important in my life. I had a chance to learn about that while I was trapped.”

More after the jump…

James Franco plays Ralston in the film version of the five days he spent with his arm pinned under a boulder. “For me that one thing was relationships, love, my past relationships and future ones as embodied in the little boy that appears there most of the way through there,” Ralston continued. “In the end it’s that crowd of people around the couch, that group, those are my real friends, my family, my sisters, my ex-girlfriend, ten of my closest guy friends. My wife and our son on the couch together. That’s what gave me the strength and the courage and the perseverance and everything you can attribute to someone who went through that. To have them there, to be honored in such a way by the film team, we got to be in the movie together. I hope for the audience it makes it a human experience. We’re always somebody’s child or somebody’s family, sometimes both. I couldn’t just stay out there and die.”

Boyle added that the scene is supposed to mean something different to each viewer. So some of you may cringe, but some of you will cheer Aron on. “We want to see drama told in a cathartic way, with power, with emotion where you empathize and then you’re frightened,” Boyle said. “All those feelings charge up in you and you feel for the story. If you tell it well you have a point suddenly where it just focuses into a scene which I guess in this one is the amputation, where people can put all sorts of their feeling in it. Some people are exhilarated in it, shouting, ‘Yes!’ like that and other people can’t look. Other people are almost faint. People are breathless. I sat behind a couple of guys who were humming all the way through it, ‘hmmmmmmmm mmmmm mmmm’ like this. That’s what drama’s about. It’s that power you can get through it, it’s a wonderful opportunity but you have to take your own control of it.”

It has to be that way, because a real person really did it. Boyle wasn’t going to cheat Ralston’s story. “Whether the film was successful or not, or well told or not, inevitably there’d be incredible focus on that scene,” Boyle said. “So we told it as truthfully as we could. It is the section of the movie more than any other where we keep very closely to the book, very, very closely. The time it took him, it took over 40 minutes. The plateaus of pain he went through as he kept going and as I said, the most important thing is that there is a story in there about where he’s going. It’s not about a brutal act. It is brutal but it is about where he’s going, not about the moment itself and that helped him get through it. It helped us get through it I think and it certainly did for Aron. You mustn’t sensationalize that by adding gore or making it too Hammer house of horror, but nor must you trivialize it by making it look too easy or too simple or not painful enough really. So that’s what we tried to do.”

127 Hours opens Friday.
 

Danny Boyle’s latest film is getting a lot of buzz, but not for the heartwarming triumph over adversity. It’s got that, but what people are focusing on is a dude cutting his arm off. 127 Hours is the Aron Ralston story. James Franco plays Ralston, an outdoorsman who gets trapped with his arm pinned under a rock. His escape by self-amputation was documented before, but Boyle’s film makes it visceral.

The stylist of Trainspotting is in full effect capturing Ralston’s epic journey through Blue John Canyon, his survival for five days and his deteriorating state of mind. Boyle gets inside Ralston’s water bottle and camcorder, and plays with his perspective on the scene around him. We’ll see what tricks Boyle has in store when he directs the Winter Olympics.

We got time alone with Boyle at the press junket for 127 Hours. He shared a chocolate bar from the minibar as he revealed his bag of tricks and addressed the reaction of early audiences.

Screen Junkies: People are talking about the arm cutting. Isn’t that a spoiler?

Danny Boyle: Well, obviously in one sense. Although realistically, you’re never going to be able to, because it isn’t a fiction. You’re never going to be able to prevent spoilers on this one. Nor can you in any circumstance these days. There’re too many avenues in which material leaks out. I think people worry too much about spoilers. I think when you go in a cinema, if the acting’s good, I think you anesthetize memory of the real circumstances. So we do it deliberately. They call it suspending disbelief, isn’t it? Clearly, the experience of the film is so intense for people that it doesn’t matter what you know going in. You’re going to go through the journey with James Franco. You’re going to feel it like he feels it and he does feel like he’s going to die and you kind of sympathize with him and emote with him and have empathy with him.

SJ: Are you always looking for ways to push and experiment with the medium of film?

DB: Yeah, I think so. I like to be faithful to a story and organic to it but I also want to try and tell it in a way that’s different, that’s surprising and fresh for people because I think people can both keep a handle on the story and also see it celebrated in the way it’s expressed, that you make the screen dance a bit. So I like to experiment, yeah. I think we go to the cinema and we expect the people who work in the cinema for us to take risks, because we have another medium through which we can see things, the television, that can be a bit safer because it’s so constant, it’s such a part of everyday life. Where cinema is a special trip. I think within that people expect if they made an effort, they expect you to have made an effort for them to go there. So if people ask advice about it, I always say, “Be bold. If you’re going to make a film, if you get a chance to make a film, be bold. It’s better to apologize afterwards than to have had to ask permission beforehand.” I always feel that.

SJ: A lot of your films are very intense, whether it’s 127 Hours or Trainspotting. Do you care if people can’t take it?

DB: I’m not reckless about people. I do care about people in the sense that I don’t want to [hurt people] but I do want to push it. I do think we go to the cinema to see an extreme experience. I want to give James the tools in the way that we made the film that he can really express himself because he has enormous power as an actor and great grace as well. So I don’t want to gross people out. I kind of want to gross people in. I want them to join in. It’ll be a safe place we’ll bring them to in the end but it’ll be an amazing journey on the way there with this actor so that’s what I try and do.

SJ: How did you get the camera to follow James through the canyons so smoothly?

DB: We used a camera called the Silicon Imaging 2K which is a very small flexible camera which is not in a housing. i.e. it’s not in a container which gives it size. All its component parts are separate. So it has a head, which is about the size of my fist, and you can put anything on it you want lens-wise. You can put these huge lenses on it like that which make it that big or you can put small ones on it that makes it double its size. We then had a gyro underneath which smooths out the human movement. So it makes it a mixture of handheld and steadicam, somewhere between the two. The key thing it’s got that’s way better than handheld or steadicam is it’s no bulkier than a human.

SJ: For shots inside the video camera or the water bottle, did you use a computer?

DB: No, no, no, absolutely not. I’m shocked to hear you suggest that. The head of the camera, the lens would be there like that. It’s old fashioned skills. The prop guys build a water bottle, cut the bottom off the real bottle, seal on a glass lens or a plastic lens which is perfectly see through and then you can just look. So when he tips it up towards his head, he’s actually tipping the whole camera towards his head for a drink. Because it’s so light, he can do that. He can just sip it. You can see the water slip into him and it’s really important because the water is a god of course. It becomes God basically because it’s life. It’s all life. Once it runs out, he knows he’s about to die more than anything else really in a way.

SJ: I’m glad there are old school techniques to do it for real. What about the camera servos inside the video camera?

DB: [Laughs] I’ll give you away a secret here. What we did is we filmed inside an old VHS machine which of course is basically the same technology but it’s on a bigger scale. So we’d film inside that because you have no reference point. You have no idea what the scale is. We opened up the Canon Elura but it’s so miniscule inside. We looked at then the old VHS machines. We bought some old ones on eBay and of course they’re exactly the same technology except they’re much, much bigger. So we filmed inside those.

SJ: Was boredom something Aron faced in five days? But you can’t let a film be boring.

DB: We tried to deal with it in the tempo of the video messages because the tempo drops in those messages. They’re very slow, quite still and we thought we’ll cover it in them because the opportunity was that James is such a charismatic actor that even when he slows it right down in there, because he’s speaking to you directly, you’ll never get discouraged as an audience but you’ll sense the endless time he had as well.

SJ: Are The Olympics another way you can push and experiment with your craft?

DB: I don’t know. I’ll tell you when I’ve done it. I was very proud to be asked and said yes immediately, didn’t think about it which is always the best way. Because it’s happening about a mile from my own home and I’m a sports fanatic as well, and I like the idea of the Olympics connecting the whole world together. It’s one of those rare things that the whole world can celebrate and get together and celebrate as one. That’s a wonderful thing I think because the might of the Chinese authorities and the resources they were able to use for that were way beyond really any western economy at the moment, certainly Britain’s economy. But notwithstanding that, we’ll try as we did with this film to embrace the limitations and actually make something of them hopefully.  So it will be slightly different, yeah.

SJ: Would it push you to find a way to present a live event?

DB: Yes, that’s interesting. I’ve done theater before. I grew up doing theater so I have done but yeah, it’s obviously tremendously scary in one sense because it is live and it’s a one off event. That’s something I’ve never done because usually theater has a run for a month, two months, three months or whatever. This is a one off performance and it happens to be seen by an awful lot of people one off but that’s cool. That’s the same pressure that the athletes are under. They get one chance to run. They can’t ask for a rerun. It happens once for them. They train for it for years and it happens in 10 seconds or whatever it is. So I’m scared and delighted at the same time.
 

Here it is, folks: the arm cutting movie. You’ve heard about it. It’s true. There’s a lot to this story, but you know it as the arm cutting movie. Personally, I think they should do a double feature of 27 Dresses and 127 Hours. In either order.

More after the jump…

Aron Ralston’s (James Franco) true story comes to life in Danny Boyle style. Even before Aron goes climbing, Boyle cuts together split screen shots of his preparation. He gets shots from inside a water bottle or inside the video camera as the servos spin. Even the adjustment of music volume adds an exciting layer to the editing.

There are awesome shots of Aron biking the canyon. This movie will certainly look great on Blu Ray. As Aron guides novice hikers Kristi (Kate Mara) and Megan (Amber Tamblyn) squeezing through a crevice, it’s more suspenseful than any action movie. The way Boyle has a camera follow Aron is amazing. It’s fast and smooth. He doesn’t even resort to shaky handheld.

Aron is charming with women, playing somewhere between a rugged savior and a scary mountain man. He’s not incompetent at all. Aron practically owns nature. It’s a total fluke that he gets pinned under a rock and he’s more surprised than anyone.

Here’s where the style really kicks in. The rest of the movie is going to be just Aron by himself dealing with the situation, trying everything he can until the inevitable solution, and somehow keeping us entertained for another 70 or so minutes.

First Aron lays out all of his supplies so we know exactly what he’s working with. Everything he tries to do is all visual, conveyed through the camera. He creates some of his own problems too, like when he drops the knife. Spoiler alert, the knife comes back in the end.

The way he finds a way to sleep is brilliant. That didn’t even occur to me. My mind was on the bathroom issues, which he addresses also. There are more issues to Aron’s situation than would immediately come to mind, so there’s plenty of excitement for the whole movie.

The film explores Aron’s dreams, which would seem like a cheat in some stories, but not here. I don’t think there was any shortage of real world drama to portray, but the way 127 Hours represents his dreams gives us a clear visual look into Aron’s mind. There are some beautiful, surreal visual effects.

It also avoids the inner monologue trap. When Aron finally devolves into a self dialogue, Boyle portrays three distinct personalities with a unique camera angle and footage style for each one.

Then it happens. There’s one particular detail that makes it extra squirmy, but it’s just realistic. It had to be done (in real life) and it has to be shown, otherwise the whole movie is B.S. You don’t get the triumph of human survival without the brutal reality of Aron’s sacrifice. Don’t be afraid to look. It’s good for you.

Danny Boyle has confirmed to a friend of DreadCentral that he will in fact direct the next film in the 28 Days Later franchise. There a no details as to what the film will be about, or what the title will be. All anyone knows is that Boyle will return to direct.

After directing the first film in the series, Boyle was credited with reinventing zombies by people who know nothing about zombie movies. What the story is actually about is a rage virus that causes people to run around attacking everyone they see. Just like that Jason guy from "The Hills." Or that episode of "The Smurfs" that I still sometimes have nightmares about. **burns self with cigarette to stop from nodding off**

_{“This suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks!”}

Fox Searchlight has dropped the new trailer for Danny Boyle‘s 127 hours. The film stars James Franco as Aron Ralston, the mountain climber who didn’t tell anyone he was going out into the wilderness and then got his arm caught inbetween rocks for 127 hours before cutting it off. As Aron says in the trailer, “Oops.”

The new trailer shows how the story jumps around from Aron documenting his experience and memories into his camcorder and flashbacks that illustrate those memories. The visuals are very Danny Boyle. I just hope they’re enough to sustain a movie about a guy trapped in a crevice.

Check out the trailer after the jump…

127 Hours – Full Trailer – Watch more Movie Trailers

Warning: This clip from Danny Boyle‘s 127 Hours doesn’t contain any of James Franco’s arms getting cut off. Warning: It does contain Kate Mara getting wet. If you believe the latter might make you faint or nauseous I suggest you go no further.

Audience members at the Telluride and the Toronto Film Festivals have been passing out and seizing do to the graphic nature of 127 Hours. The movie is about a dude who has to cut off his own arm after it gets really REALLY stuck in crevice **resists urge to make crevice joke**. If you know you can’t handle that, why would you go see it?! Stay for the first half with the swimming and laughing, and leave once the screaming starts. 

Check out the clip after the jump…

_{"F**********************CK!"}

Fox Searchlight has dropped the trailer for Danny Boyle‘s 127 Hours. James Franco stars as Aron Ralston, the climber who amputated his own arm after bring trapped between rocks for almost five days. It’s one of those feel good movies. At least the parts with Kata Mara.

Simon Beaufoy, who also worked with Boyle on Slumdog Millionaire, wrote the screenplay, and has said that there is no dialogue for an entire hour of the story. Psssshhhh, nice job "writing," Simon. Can we get serious for a second though? I’m excited to see this film. I love the energy and unique storytelling of Slumdog, and I hope 127 Hours brings the same entertainment value without inducing too many cringes. Crushed appendages are just plain yucky. But fortitude in dire straits is yummy.

127 Hours hits theaters November 5, 2010.

Check out the trailer after the jump…

127 Hours Trailer – Watch more Movie Trailers

Uber spicy redhead Kata Mara, and that girl who dies in the beginning of The Ring (Amber Tamblyn), are in talks to co-star alongside James Franco in 127 Hours, Danny Boyle‘s follow-up to Slumdog Millionaire. The film tells the story of Aron Ralston, a cautionary tale for anyone who plans to go out in the unforgiving wilderness alone and refuses to entertain the possibility they might have to cut their arm off after a boulder claims it for five hours straight. Mara and Tamblyn would play two hikers Aron meets before the antagonist (a large rock) has his way with the adventurer. If only Aron’s quest involved finding his way home to Mara. Hell, I’d give my right arm to run the fingers of my left hand through her flowing locks. I think she’d find my insensitivity extremely attractive. (/Film)

DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle

CAST: James Franco; Amber Tamblyn; Kate Mara

SYNOPSIS: A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and cuts off his f&*^ing arm in order to survive.