list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Sunshine on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Sunshine/264320/default.aspx Title: Sunshine
Year: 2007
Director: Danny Boyle
Plot: As the sun begins to dim along with mankind's hope for the future, it's up to a desperate crew of eight astronauts to reach the dying star and re-ignite the fire that will bring life back to planet Earth in a tense, psychological sci-fi thriller that re-teams 28 Days Later director Danny Boyle with writer Alex Garland and producer Andrew Macdonald. The skies are darkening, and the outlook for planet Earth is grim. Though the encroaching darkness at first seems unstoppable, scientists have concocted one desperate last-ditch plan to buy the human race a temporary reprieve from the grim future that looms just past the horizon. A crew of eight men and women has been given a nuclear device designed to literally re-ignite the sun and sent hurdling through infinity on the most crucial space mission ever attempted. Suddenly, as the crew loses radio contact with mission control, everything begins to fall apart. Now, in the darkest reaches of the galaxy, the men and women who may hold the key to ultimate survival find themselves not only struggling for their lives, but their sanity as well. Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Cillian Murphy, and Michelle Yeoh star in a film that asks audiences just what would become of mankind if the sky suddenly went black. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 14
Number of Lists: 28
Number of blog posts: 33
Number of discussion threads: 8
SpoutRating: 3
]]>Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:26:31 GMTSunshine2007Danny BoyleAs the sun begins to dim along with mankind's hope for the future, it's up to a desperate crew of eight astronauts to reach the dying star and re-ignite the fire that will bring life back to planet Earth in a tense, psychological sci-fi thriller that re-teams <a href=/films/218886/default.aspx style='text-decoration:underline'>28 Days Later</a> director <a href="/players/P___188724/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Danny Boyle</a> with writer Alex Garland and producer Andrew Macdonald. The skies are darkening, and the outlook for planet Earth is grim. Though the encroaching darkness at first seems unstoppable, scientists have concocted one desperate last-ditch plan to buy the human race a temporary reprieve from the grim future that looms just past the horizon. A crew of eight men and women has been given a nuclear device designed to literally re-ignite the sun and sent hurdling through infinity on the most crucial space mission ever attempted. Suddenly, as the crew loses radio contact with mission control, everything begins to fall apart. Now, in the darkest reaches of the galaxy, the men and women who may hold the key to ultimate survival find themselves not only struggling for their lives, but their sanity as well. <a href="/players/P___195364/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Rose Byrne</a>, <a href="/players/P___302167/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Chris Evans</a>, <a href="/players/P___271775/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Cillian Murphy</a>, and <a href="/players/P___223709/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Michelle Yeoh</a> star in a film that asks audiences just what would become of mankind if the sky suddenly went black. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide14Tag Target (>10)283383http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/s264320.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Sunshine/264320/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/blogs/apulrang/archive/2009/3/3/40805.aspx Post By: apulrang
Post To: apulrang Blog
Post Date: 3/3/2009 7:18:12 PM
Body: Sunshine is a great film from nearly every angle, but for me, it's all about a handful of shots of Rose Byrne's character dealing with ... the stuff they're all dealing with on that spacecraft. For the record, pretty much the same is true of Rose Byrne in 28 Weeks Later.
]]>Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:18:12 GMTapulrangapulrang Blog3/3/2009 7:18:12 PMSunshine is a great film from nearly every angle, but for me, it's all about a handful of shots of Rose Byrne's character dealing with ... the stuff they're all dealing with on that spacecraft. For the record, pretty much the same is true of Rose Byrne in 28 Weeks Later. http://www.spout.com/blogs/giraffeversusunicorn/archive/2009/2/3/40218.aspx Post By: giraffeversusunicorn
Post To: giraffeversusunicorn Blog
Post Date: 2/3/2009 6:56:14 PM
Body: Cross-Posted from Giraffe Versus Unicorn. Danny Boyle's Sunshine is a gorgeous psychological thriller set in the confines of the Icarus II space station, as it makes it's way towards the sun to deliver a bomb that will reignite the dieing star.The eight-strong crew of the Icarus II are instructed to carry out their goal as follows: the ship will fly within reach of the sun and fire it's payload of nuclear material, 'equal in mass to Manhattan Island', into it's very heart, while propelling themselves away within a four minute deadline. Only, they're met with a myriad of problems along the way.When they receive a distress beacon from the crew of the Icarus I, the first attempt at such a huge mission, the decision to chance docking with the other ship or continuing with the task at hand is left to Cillian Murphy's Capa, the ship's physics expert and the only person capable of delivering the payload.Events take a turn for the worse and the movie broadens it's outlook as it enters it's final act, as it throws in a physical presence (without giving too much away) to add to the overload of tension. The film falters here, at the final hurdle, with a tacked on addition that just doesn't feel needed.Sunshine gives sometimes unsubtle nods to previous science fiction movies, evoking the paranoia and claustrophobia of Alien and borrowing slithers of ideas from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It also plays, at one point, on the harsh cuts and scrapes of shots from Event Horizon, as the crew board the previous Icarus ship. Pictures and memories of the ship's former crew are interspersed between shots, building a sinister atmosphere.Stunning visuals throughout the film match a well-crafted story which dabbles in and touches on isolation, depravation and selflessness, and on a bigger scale, religion, global warming and man's intent to take one final shot and risk burning out rather than fading away.4
]]>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:56:14 GMTgiraffeversusunicorngiraffeversusunicorn Blog2/3/2009 6:56:14 PMCross-Posted from Giraffe Versus Unicorn. Danny Boyle's Sunshine is a gorgeous psychological thriller set in the confines of the Icarus II space station, as it makes it's way towards the sun to deliver a bomb that will reignite the dieing star.The eight-strong crew of the Icarus II are instructed to carry out their goal as follows: the ship will fly within reach of the sun and fire it's payload of nuclear material, 'equal in mass to Manhattan Island', into it's very heart, while propelling themselves away within a four minute deadline. Only, they're met with a myriad of problems along the way.When they receive a distress beacon from the crew of the Icarus I, the first attempt at such a huge mission, the decision to chance docking with the other ship or continuing with the task at hand is left to Cillian Murphy's Capa, the ship's physics expert and the only person capable of delivering the payload.Events take a turn for the worse and the movie broadens it's outlook as it enters it's final act, as it throws in a physical presence (without giving too much away) to add to the overload of tension. The film falters here, at the final hurdle, with a tacked on addition that just doesn't feel needed.Sunshine gives sometimes unsubtle nods to previous science fiction movies, evoking the paranoia and claustrophobia of Alien and borrowing slithers of ideas from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It also plays, at one point, on the harsh cuts and scrapes of shots from Event Horizon, as the crew board the previous Icarus ship. Pictures and memories of the ship's former crew are interspersed between shots, building a sinister atmosphere.Stunning visuals throughout the film match a well-crafted story which dabbles in and touches on isolation, depravation and selflessness, and on a bigger scale, religion, global warming and man's intent to take one final shot and risk burning out rather than fading away.4 http://www.spout.com/groups/DOOMSDAY/Re_Disaster_Most_Likely_to_End_the_World/612/39167/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: indieabby88
Post To: DOOMSDAY
Post Date: 1/6/2009 6:56:05 PM
Body: I've got three plausible scenarios: 1. 28 Days Later: Disease epidemics seem like they could easily wipe out the population (see: The Black Plague) and the way Danny Boyle handles the situation seems pretty much like the way it might happen in real life, 28 Weeks Later even more so (although I say it's a far inferior movie). Plus, if you want the world to end in horrible disaster, you want it to go out like a badass. Rage-infected zombies: totally badass. 2. Sunshine: I dunno...it sounds possible. 3. Wall-e: I know it's not really a "disaster" movie, but doesn't our rampant consumerism and wastefulness seem like it might cause the world to become a barren junkyard wasteland? I think it does.
]]>Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:56:05 GMTindieabby88DOOMSDAY1/6/2009 6:56:05 PMI've got three plausible scenarios: 1. 28 Days Later: Disease epidemics seem like they could easily wipe out the population (see: The Black Plague) and the way Danny Boyle handles the situation seems pretty much like the way it might happen in real life, 28 Weeks Later even more so (although I say it's a far inferior movie). Plus, if you want the world to end in horrible disaster, you want it to go out like a badass. Rage-infected zombies: totally badass. 2. Sunshine: I dunno...it sounds possible. 3. Wall-e: I know it's not really a "disaster" movie, but doesn't our rampant consumerism and wastefulness seem like it might cause the world to become a barren junkyard wasteland? I think it does. http://www.spout.com/blogs/usesoap/archive/2008/12/27/38883.aspx Post By: usesoap
Post To: usesoap Blog
Post Date: 12/27/2008 8:34:11 PM
Body: Make no mistake, 2008 was the year of the woman. From politics to multiplex, they were the most newsworthy. At the box office, week after week brought about stories about how, mother of all shockers, women enjoy going to the movies too. From summer “event movies” (usually an exclusive boys tree house where "No Gurlz Allowd"), to record-breaking such as best opening for a female director, women were the new black at the box office. In 2008: Twilight was the highest-grossing film opening by a female director (at $70 million); It received the second-largest advanced ticket sales, trailing only The Dark Knight; Sex and the City was the best opening ever for an R-rated comedy; The SATC gals also debuted as the fifth best R-rated film of all time; The film also bested Mission Impossible as the best debut of a film based on a TV show. Now, perhaps next year we can do the same with good movies. Sex in the City was the female equivalent of Iron Man, replacing magical gadgetry with matching accessories and pyrotechnics for Prada. The other glass ceiling-shattering film, Twilight, featured a lead who thankfully did not have to resort to sex for empowerment, but she really didn't do much else, either. Twilight's accolades are deserved for what it accomplished behind the camera, not what was captured on it. Though there were film aplenty that could populate both lists, I tried to limit this list to films that would have played in most major cities outside the metropolitan areas. BESTThe Dark Knight: Let me join the chorus of hosannas for this little underrated indie gem, for I know it could use the help financially.WALL·E: A family film with a virtually dialogue-free first half, a protagonist made of metal, an Earth barren of life and squelched by pollution, a cuddly cockroach sidekick, and a human cast that's a Dorito away from permanent bedrest. A film of staggering beauty from a company for which that is a trademark feature.The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Director David Fincher's most accessible, polished film to date. While Zodiac and Fight Club may resonate longer, Button is the kind of marriage between theatrics, epic scope, and pure emotion that lands him in the top tier of working directors. Winning, tender performances by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett only further cement the film's top 10 placement.Burn After Reading: After bumming us out of us with last year's stark, desolate (but excellent) No Country for Old Men, the Brothers Coen demonstrate their sharp comic chops with this irreverent, all-star dissection of middle-age madness and frustration of lives lived that come nowhere close to youthful aspirations. Milk: Sean Penn offers further proof of his necessity in cinema today with his ingratiating portrayal of slain politician Harvey Milk. Director Gus Van Sant lifts his vision from his navel (where it was focused during films such as Gerry and Last Days) to create a sensitive, intimate biopic that is saved from maudlin tendencies by Penn's presence. Tropic Thunder: Bold, unexpected comedy that does not wear out its welcome by the third act, like so many other mainstream comedies. Ben Stiller directs Robert Downey Jr. to his second standout performance this summer.Quantum of Solace: Some have decried the fact that Daniel Craig's Bond is just too mean. But Solace, which feels like a perfect extension of Casino Royale, feels as though it is taking its sweet time in creating the psyche of someone who has reason to be known as the greatest super-spy the world has ever known. Let the Right One In: This is a bit of a cheat, since this may have only appeared on area screens as part of a film festival, but its effect is one that reverberates far outside its limited runs nationwide. In a year when Twilight has been garnering all the attention, The Right One has become the one true vampire (and adolescence) film whose bite leaves a mark and should be sought out on DVD before the inevitable US remake. U2-3D: Demonstrating just why they are the world's biggest rock band, U2 raised the roof with this truly cinematic 3D spectacle that not only captured the feel of one of their concerts, but invited the audience on stage to jam with Bono and the boys. Slumdog Millionaire: Danny Boyle never disappoints, even with his misfires (A Life Less Ordinary, Sunshine). But he nails it again with Slumdog, a rather pedestrian tale told with wit, undeniable humanity and delivered with uncompromising conviction. WORST The Happening: When wind is your chief villain, it's time to rethink the script. The Love Guru: Mike Myers steps in Deepak doo-doo.Sex and the City: Inside this film's Sax Fifth Avenue window dressing lies the the cold, calculated heart of an empty Wal-Mart.88Minutes/Righteous Kill: Al Pacino should have known better after working with director Jon Avnet in 88, but instead enlisted fellow legend Robert DeNiro to further Kill both their careers.X-Files: I Want to Believe: But now I no longer do.Seven Pounds: Will Smith packed his bags for a guilt trip, and we're forced to ride along in the back seat. An American Carol: Looks like Republicans were just as good at making films as they were winning elections in 2008.Meet the Spartans/Disaster Movie: Cinematic parody: Born 1923, Died 2008.
]]>Sun, 28 Dec 2008 01:34:11 GMTusesoapusesoap Blog12/27/2008 8:34:11 PMMake no mistake, 2008 was the year of the woman. From politics to multiplex, they were the most newsworthy. At the box office, week after week brought about stories about how, mother of all shockers, women enjoy going to the movies too. From summer &ldquo;event movies&rdquo; (usually an exclusive boys tree house where "No Gurlz Allowd"), to record-breaking such as best opening for a female director, women were the new black at the box office. In 2008: Twilight was the highest-grossing film opening by a female director (at $70 million); It received the second-largest advanced ticket sales, trailing only The Dark Knight; Sex and the City was the best opening ever for an R-rated comedy; The SATC gals also debuted as the fifth best R-rated film of all time; The film also bested Mission Impossible as the best debut of a film based on a TV show. Now, perhaps next year we can do the same with good movies. Sex in the City was the female equivalent of Iron Man, replacing magical gadgetry with matching accessories and pyrotechnics for Prada. The other glass ceiling-shattering film, Twilight, featured a lead who thankfully did not have to resort to sex for empowerment, but she really didn't do much else, either. Twilight's accolades are deserved for what it accomplished behind the camera, not what was captured on it. Though there were film aplenty that could populate both lists, I tried to limit this list to films that would have played in most major cities outside the metropolitan areas. BESTThe Dark Knight: Let me join the chorus of hosannas for this little underrated indie gem, for I know it could use the help financially.WALL&middot;E: A family film with a virtually dialogue-free first half, a protagonist made of metal, an Earth barren of life and squelched by pollution, a cuddly cockroach sidekick, and a human cast that's a Dorito away from permanent bedrest. A film of staggering beauty from a company for which that is a trademark feature.The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Director David Fincher's most accessible, polished film to date. While Zodiac and Fight Club may resonate longer, Button is the kind of marriage between theatrics, epic scope, and pure emotion that lands him in the top tier of working directors. Winning, tender performances by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett only further cement the film's top 10 placement.Burn After Reading: After bumming us out of us with last year's stark, desolate (but excellent) No Country for Old Men, the Brothers Coen demonstrate their sharp comic chops with this irreverent, all-star dissection of middle-age madness and frustration of lives lived that come nowhere close to youthful aspirations. Milk: Sean Penn offers further proof of his necessity in cinema today with his ingratiating portrayal of slain politician Harvey Milk. Director Gus Van Sant lifts his vision from his navel (where it was focused during films such as Gerry and Last Days) to create a sensitive, intimate biopic that is saved from maudlin tendencies by Penn's presence. Tropic Thunder: Bold, unexpected comedy that does not wear out its welcome by the third act, like so many other mainstream comedies. Ben Stiller directs Robert Downey Jr. to his second standout performance this summer.Quantum of Solace: Some have decried the fact that Daniel Craig's Bond is just too mean. But Solace, which feels like a perfect extension of Casino Royale, feels as though it is taking its sweet time in creating the psyche of someone who has reason to be known as the greatest super-spy the world has ever known. Let the Right One In: This is a bit of a cheat, since this may have only appeared on area screens as part of a film festival, but its effect is one that reverberates far outside its limited runs nationwide. In a year when Twilight has been garnering all the attention, The Right One has become the one true vampire (and adolescence) film whose bite leaves a mark and should be sought out on DVD before the inevitable US remake. U2-3D: Demonstrating just why they are the world's biggest rock band, U2 raised the roof with this truly cinematic 3D spectacle that not only captured the feel of one of their concerts, but invited the audience on stage to jam with Bono and the boys. Slumdog Millionaire: Danny Boyle never disappoints, even with his misfires (A Life Less Ordinary, Sunshine). But he nails it again with Slumdog, a rather pedestrian tale told with wit, undeniable humanity and delivered with uncompromising conviction. WORST The Happening: When wind is your chief villain, it's time to rethink the script. The Love Guru: Mike Myers steps in Deepak doo-doo.Sex and the City: Inside this film's Sax Fifth Avenue window dressing lies the the cold, calculated heart of an empty Wal-Mart.88Minutes/Righteous Kill: Al Pacino should have known better after working with director Jon Avnet in 88, but instead enlisted fellow legend Robert DeNiro to further Kill both their careers.X-Files: I Want to Believe: But now I no longer do.Seven Pounds: Will Smith packed his bags for a guilt trip, and we're forced to ride along in the back seat. An American Carol: Looks like Republicans were just as good at making films as they were winning elections in 2008.Meet the Spartans/Disaster Movie: Cinematic parody: Born 1923, Died 2008. http://www.spout.com/groups/Community_Recommendations/Re_Collaboration_Best_Films_of_2007/643/38187/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: dibot
Post To: Community Recommendations
Post Date: 12/10/2008 1:36:01 PM
Body: Many good films have been listed. My ulitmate favorite for 2007 is There Will Be Blood. But I have a few others: 1. 30 Days of Night 2. Black Snake Moan 3. Breach 4. Eastern Promises 5. Gone Baby Gone 6. La Vie En Rose 7. No Country for Old Men 8. Sunshine 9. The Mist 10. Waitress
]]>Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:36:01 GMTdibotCommunity Recommendations12/10/2008 1:36:01 PMMany good films have been listed. My ulitmate favorite for 2007 is There Will Be Blood. But I have a few others: 1. 30 Days of Night 2. Black Snake Moan 3. Breach 4. Eastern Promises 5. Gone Baby Gone 6. La Vie En Rose 7. No Country for Old Men 8. Sunshine 9. The Mist 10. Waitress http://www.spout.com/groups/Coming_Soon/New_Movies_11_21_Sexy_vampires_in_TWILIGHT_fer/216/37372/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: SkyPilot
Post To: Coming Soon
Post Date: 11/17/2008 12:52:13 PM
Body: 1. Bolt -- Watch the trailer. In Disney's latest, a puppy named Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) is famous for playing a superhero dog on TV. When he sets out to save his owner (voiced by Miley Ray Cyrus) from harm, he's shocked to discover that he's just a normal dog. Luckily, a cat and a hamster are willing to help him. Whoever sees this movie, I'm interested in your reactions. I might see it for that hamster. He gets cuter as he grows more ferocious. 2. Twilight -- Watch the trailer and read the sex-charged press conference from Comic-Con. Twilight stars a bunch of good-looking teens, and most of them are vampires. Who here has daydreamed about being a teenage vampire? I haven't, but sometimes I daydream about being a tween werewolf, or a toddler from the Black Lagoon. :) Vote in our Vampire Cage Match Robert Pattinson, who plays Peter Cullen in Twilight, is one of the 16 vampires in Spout's Vampire Cage Match. Should Robert win his first match against Tom Cruise's Lestat (Interview With the Vampire)? Make your vote heard in the pretty-boy bloodletting, humans! 3. Nerakhoon (The Betrayal) -- In this documentary, Laotian filmmaker Thavisouk Phrasavath tells the story of Laotian refugees struggling through hardship and extreme poverty during the Vietnam War. His family was among the refugees, but the film moves beyond their experience, looking at the political events that caused the refugees' situation. I'm fuzzy on the history, but I know America was waging a secret air war against Laos at the time. Phrasavath has been piecing this narrative together for 23 years. It looks like one of those stories that, if told in American history books at all, it's told too briefly. 4. Special -- Watch the trailer. A lonely, comics-obsessed parking enforcement officer volunteers to try an experimental antidepressant. The side effects: either he's lost his mind, or he's actually developed superpowers. Can he trust his own perceptions? 5. I Can't Think Straight -- Watch the trailer. Two women, one a Christian and the other a Muslim, fall in love. Obviously their cultures are not very ready or willing to accept their relationship. Directed by Hamin Sarif and based on her autobiographical novel The World Unseen. 6. Lake City -- An estranged mother (Sissy Spacek) and son (Troy Garity, who plays Harvey from Sunshine), come together to save their home from villainous Dave Matthews. (Yes, that Dave Matthews.) Speaking of Sunshine, I haven't seen it. Would you guys recommend it? 7. Yuvvraaj Indian film. Musical drama about a hard-on-his-luck singer who vows to become a billionaire within 40 days, while at the same time trying to mend his broken relationships with his brothers. I can really relate to this story; it happened to me once. :)
]]>Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:52:13 GMTSkyPilotComing Soon11/17/2008 12:52:13 PM1. Bolt -- Watch the trailer. In Disney's latest, a puppy named Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) is famous for playing a superhero dog on TV. When he sets out to save his owner (voiced by Miley Ray Cyrus) from harm, he's shocked to discover that he's just a normal dog. Luckily, a cat and a hamster are willing to help him. Whoever sees this movie, I'm interested in your reactions. I might see it for that hamster. He gets cuter as he grows more ferocious. 2. Twilight -- Watch the trailer and read the sex-charged press conference from Comic-Con. Twilight stars a bunch of good-looking teens, and most of them are vampires. Who here has daydreamed about being a teenage vampire? I haven't, but sometimes I daydream about being a tween werewolf, or a toddler from the Black Lagoon. :) Vote in our Vampire Cage Match Robert Pattinson, who plays Peter Cullen in Twilight, is one of the 16 vampires in Spout's Vampire Cage Match. Should Robert win his first match against Tom Cruise's Lestat (Interview With the Vampire)? Make your vote heard in the pretty-boy bloodletting, humans! 3. Nerakhoon (The Betrayal) -- In this documentary, Laotian filmmaker Thavisouk Phrasavath tells the story of Laotian refugees struggling through hardship and extreme poverty during the Vietnam War. His family was among the refugees, but the film moves beyond their experience, looking at the political events that caused the refugees' situation. I'm fuzzy on the history, but I know America was waging a secret air war against Laos at the time. Phrasavath has been piecing this narrative together for 23 years. It looks like one of those stories that, if told in American history books at all, it's told too briefly. 4. Special -- Watch the trailer. A lonely, comics-obsessed parking enforcement officer volunteers to try an experimental antidepressant. The side effects: either he's lost his mind, or he's actually developed superpowers. Can he trust his own perceptions? 5. I Can't Think Straight -- Watch the trailer. Two women, one a Christian and the other a Muslim, fall in love. Obviously their cultures are not very ready or willing to accept their relationship. Directed by Hamin Sarif and based on her autobiographical novel The World Unseen. 6. Lake City -- An estranged mother (Sissy Spacek) and son (Troy Garity, who plays Harvey from Sunshine), come together to save their home from villainous Dave Matthews. (Yes, that Dave Matthews.) Speaking of Sunshine, I haven't seen it. Would you guys recommend it? 7. Yuvvraaj Indian film. Musical drama about a hard-on-his-luck singer who vows to become a billionaire within 40 days, while at the same time trying to mend his broken relationships with his brothers. I can really relate to this story; it happened to me once. :) http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/11/12/37265.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 11/12/2008 6:01:07 PM
Body: Money makes the world go round, and it also drives the plot most of the films of Danny Boyle. Slumdog Millionaire, as you can guess by the title, is no different. It greases the wheels of Boyle’s plots, and forces characters to do things they wouldn’t otherwise even consider. Unfortunately cash doesn’t really play a part in 28 Days Later or Sunshine, probably because zombies don’t really shop that often, and the Sun doesn’t take credit cards, but every one of his other films has a pile of money at the heart of the story. Shallow Grave This intense thriller wouldn’t have existed without a mysterious tenant who turns up dead, and who happens to have a ton of cash in his room. Three normal people then slowly become dangerously unhinged and obsessed with protecting the haul and figuring out what to do with it. Although this movie was Ewan McGregor’s breakout role, it’s poor Christopher Eccleston who really transforms in this movie from quiet nebbish to complete psychopath. Note to self: do not store enormous amounts of cash in the attic cistern. That really limits your escape options. Trainspotting This movie is about heroin, to be sure, but it takes dough to buy the stuff, which is why Mark Renton and his friends are perpetually broke and stealing odds and ends to scrape enough together for their next fix. When Renton finally gets out of the rut and goes straight, his old friends pull him right back in. When he eventually finds himself in the middle of a deal to sell cocaine for cash, Renton turns his back on his friends and walks off with the cash while they sleep. Note to self: never make friends with anyone named “Begbie.” A Life Less Ordinary Probably Boyle’s wackiest film to date, and so far his last collaboration with Ewan McGregor. McGregor plays a janitor who is writing a trash novel, and when he gets laid off because robots are replacing his job, he snaps and kidnaps his rich boss’ daughter (Cameron Diaz) in the hopes of scoring a large ransom. Then two angels step in and it becomes a movie about love and change and… what about the money?! At least he finds love. And yes, money. But which one is more important? Note to self: Don’t let Cameron Diaz attempt to shoot fruit off of my head. The Beach Leonardo DiCaprio’s first film after Titanic ended up being The Beach, and while the novel is much, much better than the movie, I still find myself always getting stuck on the film when I flip past it on cable. While money isn’t central to the story, per se, the massive farm full of marijuana on a protected island preserve probably makes a few bucks. It’s the lure of the paradise versus the pollution of the outside world, and that cash crop ends up complicating things when the thugs decide to kick everyone out. Note to self: don’t like on utopic island populated by drug-runners. Millions In the days before the the Bank of England switched to Euros, two boys find a bag bursting at the seams with wads of cash. They only have a few days to spend it, and they split into two opposite paths: the older brother spends the money on material things and trying to impress his friends at school, while the younger brother wants to use it to help people. This is probably Boyle’s sweetest film to date, but it does it without being sappy or talking down to the audience. Note to self: Alex Etel might not be a great investment banker, but he’d probably find the most humanitarian way to spend your dough. Plus he’s just one damn cute kid. Slumdog Millionaire Spout’s other Kevin didn’t like this movie, but I imagine that Danny Boyle probably owes him some cash, so he thought he’d stiff him on the review. I really loved this movie, and Danny doesn’t owe me a dime. He even picked up the tab for the tea when I interviewed him in Toronto. Which means… wait a minute. Did he buy a favorable review by getting me a cup of tea? Maybe money is central to everything. Very clever, Mr. Boyle. Slumdog Millionaire opens this week, so get out there and spend your own cash and see what you think. Note to self: next time hold out for a steak dinner. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:01:07 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com11/12/2008 6:01:07 PMMoney makes the world go round, and it also drives the plot most of the films of Danny Boyle. Slumdog Millionaire, as you can guess by the title, is no different. It greases the wheels of Boyle’s plots, and forces characters to do things they wouldn’t otherwise even consider. Unfortunately cash doesn’t really play a part in 28 Days Later or Sunshine, probably because zombies don’t really shop that often, and the Sun doesn’t take credit cards, but every one of his other films has a pile of money at the heart of the story. Shallow Grave This intense thriller wouldn’t have existed without a mysterious tenant who turns up dead, and who happens to have a ton of cash in his room. Three normal people then slowly become dangerously unhinged and obsessed with protecting the haul and figuring out what to do with it. Although this movie was Ewan McGregor’s breakout role, it’s poor Christopher Eccleston who really transforms in this movie from quiet nebbish to complete psychopath. Note to self: do not store enormous amounts of cash in the attic cistern. That really limits your escape options. Trainspotting This movie is about heroin, to be sure, but it takes dough to buy the stuff, which is why Mark Renton and his friends are perpetually broke and stealing odds and ends to scrape enough together for their next fix. When Renton finally gets out of the rut and goes straight, his old friends pull him right back in. When he eventually finds himself in the middle of a deal to sell cocaine for cash, Renton turns his back on his friends and walks off with the cash while they sleep. Note to self: never make friends with anyone named “Begbie.” A Life Less Ordinary Probably Boyle’s wackiest film to date, and so far his last collaboration with Ewan McGregor. McGregor plays a janitor who is writing a trash novel, and when he gets laid off because robots are replacing his job, he snaps and kidnaps his rich boss’ daughter (Cameron Diaz) in the hopes of scoring a large ransom. Then two angels step in and it becomes a movie about love and change and… what about the money?! At least he finds love. And yes, money. But which one is more important? Note to self: Don’t let Cameron Diaz attempt to shoot fruit off of my head. The Beach Leonardo DiCaprio’s first film after Titanic ended up being The Beach, and while the novel is much, much better than the movie, I still find myself always getting stuck on the film when I flip past it on cable. While money isn’t central to the story, per se, the massive farm full of marijuana on a protected island preserve probably makes a few bucks. It’s the lure of the paradise versus the pollution of the outside world, and that cash crop ends up complicating things when the thugs decide to kick everyone out. Note to self: don’t like on utopic island populated by drug-runners. Millions In the days before the the Bank of England switched to Euros, two boys find a bag bursting at the seams with wads of cash. They only have a few days to spend it, and they split into two opposite paths: the older brother spends the money on material things and trying to impress his friends at school, while the younger brother wants to use it to help people. This is probably Boyle’s sweetest film to date, but it does it without being sappy or talking down to the audience. Note to self: Alex Etel might not be a great investment banker, but he’d probably find the most humanitarian way to spend your dough. Plus he’s just one damn cute kid. Slumdog Millionaire Spout’s other Kevin didn’t like this movie, but I imagine that Danny Boyle probably owes him some cash, so he thought he’d stiff him on the review. I really loved this movie, and Danny doesn’t owe me a dime. He even picked up the tab for the tea when I interviewed him in Toronto. Which means… wait a minute. Did he buy a favorable review by getting me a cup of tea? Maybe money is central to everything. Very clever, Mr. Boyle. Slumdog Millionaire opens this week, so get out there and spend your own cash and see what you think. Note to self: next time hold out for a steak dinner. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/9/13/35109.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 9/13/2008 3:01:02 PM
Body: It’s been just over a year since Danny Boyle’s sci fi film Sunshine came out, and it would be hard to imagine a more different film than Slumdog Millionaire, which has just premiered at both the Telluride and Toronto film festivals (and won the People’s Choice award at the latter). It’s an extremely touching love story set amidst the slums of Mumbai, and uses the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” as a catalytic backdrop. Boyle definitely continues to mature as a filmmaker, and has somehow learned to be an excellent director of children––the performances he gets out of the young kids in both this movie and Millions are astounding. Despite his punk-rock roots, he claims to have gotten in touch with his innner hippy while shooting Slumdog in India. Read on to find out all about it, and why he might be driving a cab around London. So, did Simon just bring the script to you one day, or were you familiar with the book? He didn’t. They sent it, the producer sent it, and I think he sent it through my agent, and the bloody agent said it’s a film about “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” And I thought, who wants to make a film about that? And then, I saw his name was on it, and I recognized his name because, I’d never met him, but I knew him from The Full Monty. And I’d seen a couple of his films since then that he’d written or directed. And I liked him a lot as a serious, we don’t have many of them, proper writers, in the UK, and I thought I should read it out of respect of him, and I’ll ring him up and I can sort of say, I like your work, and, it’s not for me. Right. Page 20, I just knew I was going to do it. And they’re always the best decisions because you don’t think about, will we be able to raise enough money, what’s it going to be like, will I be able to watch it? You just don’t think that, you kind of get a kind of common sense amnesia, you know? It just disappears, common sense, and then you just go, “Oh yeah, I’ll do that! It’s amazing!” and you set off and do it. And when it happens, it’s like, it’s the best way. You don’t get it every time. They’re usually more complicated than that, but when that enters you, it’s just like, just go, you know? And we raised a bit of money. We made it for a fairly minimal price, and that sets you free as well, because I have a good relationship with Pathe in the UK, and Warner Independent were very keen to start a relationship, and all those kinds of things, so it looked perfect at first. You know, the Warner Independent thing got more complicated once we’d finished shooting. But, they certainly gave us a huge, both, everybody gave us a huge amount of support filming, and they let us get on with it and make it how we wanted to make it. So, it was ideal, really, in a way. How long ago was that, when you first read the script to us seeing it now here at Toronto? The producer said it was two years ago when I first started work, when I first read it. But, I felt like we made, I mean, we shot the film November/December/January, and we’re here now in September, so it felt pretty quick. And I wanted it to feel quick because the previous film I made, Sunshine,had taken forever. It was a studio movie, and it’s a very disciplined, isolated experience. And you want a contrast with that, you go to Mumbai. I remember, I spoke to you at the L.A. press day for “Sunshine,” and you were sort of teasing “Slumdog,” you were saying, this is my next project and it’s kind of, I think you gave like a simple logline, I don’t think you mentioned the “Millionaire” thing, I mean, the TV show. It’s amazing to me that that’s come together so, sort of quickly. It seems like we were just, like Sunshine just came out, and then, now here we are with Slumdog Millionaire, which couldn’t be a more different film, I think. I wanted it, we were aiming for Toronto, as well, so we kept the same speed in post that we’d had in filming, like sort of no-nonsense, get on with it, and kind of don’t indulge yourself, or… It’s a good discipline, you know, because I mean, there might be rough edges, but it kind of suits the spirit of the film. India, I mean, Mumbai changes every day, I mean, every day. So, you’re not going to be, you’re never going to quite get it, so you might as well just get on with it, do it. It’s a really interesting place like that. Anyway, we made Toronto just. We just got it ready in time. Yeah, at the opening night you were saying you had screened at Telluride, but then made some changes in the meantime, so we’re seeing the finished product. So, it’s brilliant to have done it like that, and we’ve had a bit of a roller coaster ride because we thought, I mean, not but four, six weeks ago, we were dead, really, in terms of North America because of the problems with Warner Independent. But, it’s amazing the way these things work out, and they had the good grace to show it to Fox Searchlight who jumped at it. And then, we had these two festivals so that we set up, and you get a kind of response from the audience that is your dream, really, for this kind of film. So, yeah, it’s been very lucky, really. I think, it would’ve been so easy to… well, we see documentaries and other films set in India that sort of focus on the squalor and say, my, how unfortunate this is. Aren’t these people living in such terrible conditions? Your film still shows those conditions, but it doesn’t feel… you don’t feel sad. They don’t feel like that. They’re happy like that. It’s their home! How dare you come and say about it, “That’s not good enough.” They’re very proud, and very industrious people. They’re all working. They’re all trying to get their kids in school, if they can afford it, fairly basic school, but school. You know, very wonderful people, really. I just tried to tell it from their perspective. And poverty is a very changeable expression. What is… Is it a poverty of kind of bricks and mortar, and there’s a poverty of the soul, and there’s a lot going on in India that you kind of like, you learn about yourself and about our society that we’ve got a lot to learn from it still, even though apparently they’re learning from us in terms of economics and in terms of development and that kind of thing, but it doesn’t bring you everything, as we know. So, you try and tell it from their perspective. I had an amazing experience with this guy who, in this slum, the Dharavi slum, which is, Dharavi is, it’s known as the biggest slum in the world. There’s two million people living in it. It’s a city, it’s its own city. It hasn’t got a transport system other than your feet, but it’s actually a city. It’s an extraordinary place. And we went in this one place, and this guy… It was like this, it was this size, full of vegetable oil cans, square vegetable oil cans, that big, and he’s recycling them. They recycled in India way before we got into recycling. They’ve been doing it for donkeys’ years. It’s part of the culture that people throw their rubbish away, and you think, oh, that’s disgusting, but they throw it away because there’s these people who live their lives picking it up and recycling it. There’s this pattern that you begin to see about the way, what looks like dirt to begin with, there’s actually a pattern. Anyway, this guy, I went in, and visually, it was just, oh! I thought, please let us film here, and he said, I won’t let you film here. He said, you can look around, he said, but I’ve let National Geographic in here twice to take photographs for the magazine, and each time, I’ve asked them, please don’t say that we’re poor. And he said, each time, they just present us as being poor. He said, I’ve run this business for 30 years. I employ like between 25 and 50 people, depending on, you know, and I give them a good wage, and they kind of like, and he said, I don’t want to be told that I’m poor. And you’ve got to take that on board, you know, when you want to make a film there, I think. And then, you know, obviously you saw that it’s pretty brutal, some of it, which it is, you don’t try and hide that because that stuff still goes on. The children that you cast, especially the very young ones, I mean, the film stays with them a lot longer than I think other films would. A lot of times you see children in the opening scenes, and then there’s the flash cut, and the train goes by, and suddenly they’re an adult, you know? That’s the studio, of course. That’s the pressure the studio, studio will always go… they want to get to the crumpet, the ones the people are going to identify with or desire or everything like that. No, I mean, we had, we were absolutely clear where we did that. And the kids were great. They were really, you could tell they would be fantastic when we met them. How did you find them, just a long casting process? Long casting process, had a great casting director there called Loveleen Tandan, and she became the co-director on the film because I had her there every day, and I kind of relied on her enormously to make sure I didn’t make any big mistakes, and obviously, translation for the kids. And translation of the text because obviously, if you translate a line of Simon’s literally into Hindi, a seven-year-old is just going to go… So, they had to be given a line that was the equivalent in Hindi. Like a really good example of it is they say at one point, “I’m hungry.” The expression in Hindi slang that he says is, “I’ve got rats running round my tummy,” which is great, you know? [laughter] That is a great expression. It’s a great line. And that’s what they say, but it’s too long to put it up, and so we put up, “I’m hungry.” So, what they’re saying isn’t exactly what you’re reading, but it is the equivalent for a poor Hindi person, for the kind of slang that they use. They were great, the kids. And, again, the fact that we had a huge, they let me take a huge amount of money meant that we could do their section of the film in Hindi, because seven-year-olds don’t speak English. They start learning it at about seven. They pick it up from all sorts of places. Television, movies, music. Lot of music in there that they’re picking up English from. That kind of the whole cultural history of Britain and English within India. So, they’re picking it up gradually. So, we made the transition between seven and 14. By the time they’re 14, they can speak English. And because we wanted it to be a mainstream movie, they do. They’re going to speak English from there on. Don’t they have a name for that genre? The Hinglish film? Hinglish, yeah. They kind of blend it together. They do blend it together and it’s a living language there. They’re really, it’s developing and evolving the whole time. Strange words. They’re an odd mix too, you know. I love how you featured the phone centers because there’s a novel called “Transmission” by this Indian author named Hari Kunzru. It focuses on - one of the characters is an employee of one of these phone centers - and it talks about how they physically train them to speak in different dialects. To know the general geography so they can sound like, “Oh no, I live in your town.” Casual kind of references to things. They learn. They have this briefing session at the beginning of the day where they get the sports results from America from the night before. [laughs] So that if they’re caught they can fall back on it. It’s just bizarre. Had you ever been to India before? No, I hadn’t actually. My dad was there in the war. He served as a young man training. He went to Bombay with tens of thousands of other British guys to invade Japan. They were going to invade Japan. They were getting ready to invade Japan to sail off and presumably die, a great deal of them, if that happened. He was there when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. And it’s weird, he would say we knew then. He didn’t talk about it very much, but he said he knew then we weren’t going to die, we were going to go home. And he said a couple of weeks later we just sailed home. That was it, it was over, It’s amazing. The thing he did talk about a lot was India and being in Bombay. Because the kind of casual racism in Britain that was on our televisions in the 1960s and 1970s to do with the Indian population that was moving to Britain. It used to make him so mad, because he’d say Indians are really clean, you know. Don’t believe that. But, it would make him really annoyed. I remember he’d watch this stuff on the television, he’d be really annoyed. He said, “They take a pan of water. They wash themselves when they go to the loo. Not like us, using paper.” He said they’re much cleaner. It was sort of amazing, you know. Anyway. The Amitabh Bachchan character, is that a real Indian movie star? Oh, he’s massive. He’s the most, apart from Gandhi, he’s probably the most famous name in India. And he’s a magnificent actor. He has starred in hundreds of films, hundreds. So, when you mention his name it is like mentioning… It’s very difficult to find an equivalent in the West. There isn’t one. You’d have to put together Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise and Michael Phelps. You’d have to put them together and say it’s that level of royalty. Absolute royalty. He’s a God to people. Outside his house in Bombay, people wait for days and days and days to catch a glimpse of him as he leaves. Would he visit the slums like that? I mean, was that him sort of being gracious and signing autographs for the poor people in the slums or was that a created incident? No, he has to travel everywhere by helicopter and stuff like that. And there is a little, this slum… Slums grow up around the airports and this airport he’ll have used many times. And I guess they may have run over there like that without discussing the scene we used. Did you learn anything about yourself making this film? I mean, being in India the whole time. What did you learn? Yes. I think, that’s the most important thing you do learn. Is that you go there and you think you’re going to learn about Indian culture and all those kinds of things. And you do obviously because you do research to make sure it’s accurate and all that kind of stuff. The biggest thing is that hippy thing they tell you that you’re going to learn something about yourself and you do and you learn. You learn that you cannot control everything. And it’s this destiny thing of course. But, in the West, we don’t really value, because we believe we can change our destiny by hard work, by application, by all these kind of things. But there, it’s so vast and you’re so small, you’re so meaningless. You learn your place, really. That you have a place and that you have a role. It’s very interesting and it’s a humbling thing. Because your role might be as a film director or it might be as a barber. But, you learn a kind of acceptance really that in the great scheme of things, there’s you and you’re there and you’ve got to learn. And there’s great value in learning that. And it helps you make the film, because it learns you to respect the place you’re in. And when you do that, you’re not trying to change it. You’re not trying to control it, make it… You’re opening yourself to it. And when you do that, this terrible hippy thing happens where it comes back to you and serendipity takes place. These things fall into your lap, these gifts. Like we got this guy, this composer, the most amazing composer, Rama. In a million years, we wouldn’t have got him because he’s like so busy in Bollywood. We got him, you know? And we find this guy Dev in London. I was running out of guys to find. I couldn’t find him in Bollywood, they were all the wrong types of guys. And my daughter says you should watch this program on British television called “Skins.” And you look, “My God, oh there he is.” I don’t want to sound like a hippy because I’m not a hippy. I was a punk. I was like anti-hippy. Well, that’s what you said, it was a terrible hippy thing because you’re like, “Oh, I’m embracing it, but I didn’t want to.” I know. And I never thought, you know, I never thought I’d speak like that, but it’s true. It happens to you. It is mysterious and you can’t quite put it into words, but you sense it so strongly there. And I love the place, actually. For all its faults, and its biggest fault I think is not the dirt and the fact that there’s no toilets and all that kind of stuff. The biggest problem with it is there’s sexism. It’s not in the film because it’s not relevant to our story, but it’s a terrible place for women in many ways. The role of women. There’s huge advances they’ve got to make there still. But, I did, despite all that, I love the place. If tomorrow someone came and said, “Danny, you can no longer make films,” what would you do? I’d be a… I’ve always wanted to be a taxi driver. You know, around London. Wow. I’ve always fancied that. I mean, when I was a kid I wanted to be a train driver. Because from my kind of background that was like what you aspired to. To be a train driver was a big thing, so you never thought you’d be a film director. But, I’ve often thought about cabbying. And sometimes when you’re working and you’re, “I think that’d be really interesting to do that.” I’d love to do that. I mean, I’d love to be able to do something more useful with my life like be a medical technician for Médecins Sans Frontières or the Red Cross or… You know, I went to Uzbekistan with MSF actually a couple of years ago to write a report for them on - they were tackling multi drug resistant TB there - and write about it in the British Press. I’d love to do something useful with my life, but I’ve wasted myself on these bloody films. Well, yeah. You could ostensibly be a taxi driver tomorrow. To become a medical technician you’d have to go to school for several years. Yes, I know. But, taxi driver, you could do it. And I’ve always thought I should do that. I should just do it and it would be really interesting what you saw. Because I live in a really interesting area of London. I live in the East End of London where the Olympics are going to be, and it’s a Bengali area now. 60% Bengali population. And there’s a lot of drugs. A lot of the drugs that come into London are coming in through there. They’re a great trading people, Bengali people, and one of the trades is drugs. I think, you’d find out a lot about all that. So, I think, that’d be really interesting. So, I’ve often thought I should do it and then make a film about it. Yeah, I was just thinking it sounds like a film. You do it for a year and then you could kind of like make something of it. Because you’d find out so much. I remember going out, we lost this cat. My daughter’s favorite cat disappeared. You know they vanish. And we’d end up, me and her mom would end up going out at three, four o’clock in the morning around the back streets shouting “Jenny, Jenny,” looking for this cat. And you’d see the guys going around in these unmarked cars, the drug squad. Because they were kind of, they were police, you could tell. Because they’d come up to us and they’d realize you’re some weird couple looking for a cat, and they’re just like… But, they’re looking for these young Bengali kids kind of trading drugs and doing deals and stuff like that. Wow. Danny Boyle, director, punk, hippy, taxi driver, I like it. [laughter] Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Sat, 13 Sep 2008 19:01:02 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com9/13/2008 3:01:02 PM It’s been just over a year since Danny Boyle’s sci fi film Sunshine came out, and it would be hard to imagine a more different film than Slumdog Millionaire, which has just premiered at both the Telluride and Toronto film festivals (and won the People’s Choice award at the latter). It’s an extremely touching love story set amidst the slums of Mumbai, and uses the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” as a catalytic backdrop. Boyle definitely continues to mature as a filmmaker, and has somehow learned to be an excellent director of children––the performances he gets out of the young kids in both this movie and Millions are astounding. Despite his punk-rock roots, he claims to have gotten in touch with his innner hippy while shooting Slumdog in India. Read on to find out all about it, and why he might be driving a cab around London. So, did Simon just bring the script to you one day, or were you familiar with the book? He didn’t. They sent it, the producer sent it, and I think he sent it through my agent, and the bloody agent said it’s a film about “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” And I thought, who wants to make a film about that? And then, I saw his name was on it, and I recognized his name because, I’d never met him, but I knew him from The Full Monty. And I’d seen a couple of his films since then that he’d written or directed. And I liked him a lot as a serious, we don’t have many of them, proper writers, in the UK, and I thought I should read it out of respect of him, and I’ll ring him up and I can sort of say, I like your work, and, it’s not for me. Right. Page 20, I just knew I was going to do it. And they’re always the best decisions because you don’t think about, will we be able to raise enough money, what’s it going to be like, will I be able to watch it? You just don’t think that, you kind of get a kind of common sense amnesia, you know? It just disappears, common sense, and then you just go, “Oh yeah, I’ll do that! It’s amazing!” and you set off and do it. And when it happens, it’s like, it’s the best way. You don’t get it every time. They’re usually more complicated than that, but when that enters you, it’s just like, just go, you know? And we raised a bit of money. We made it for a fairly minimal price, and that sets you free as well, because I have a good relationship with Pathe in the UK, and Warner Independent were very keen to start a relationship, and all those kinds of things, so it looked perfect at first. You know, the Warner Independent thing got more complicated once we’d finished shooting. But, they certainly gave us a huge, both, everybody gave us a huge amount of support filming, and they let us get on with it and make it how we wanted to make it. So, it was ideal, really, in a way. How long ago was that, when you first read the script to us seeing it now here at Toronto? The producer said it was two years ago when I first started work, when I first read it. But, I felt like we made, I mean, we shot the film November/December/January, and we’re here now in September, so it felt pretty quick. And I wanted it to feel quick because the previous film I made, Sunshine,had taken forever. It was a studio movie, and it’s a very disciplined, isolated experience. And you want a contrast with that, you go to Mumbai. I remember, I spoke to you at the L.A. press day for “Sunshine,” and you were sort of teasing “Slumdog,” you were saying, this is my next project and it’s kind of, I think you gave like a simple logline, I don’t think you mentioned the “Millionaire” thing, I mean, the TV show. It’s amazing to me that that’s come together so, sort of quickly. It seems like we were just, like Sunshine just came out, and then, now here we are with Slumdog Millionaire, which couldn’t be a more different film, I think. I wanted it, we were aiming for Toronto, as well, so we kept the same speed in post that we’d had in filming, like sort of no-nonsense, get on with it, and kind of don’t indulge yourself, or… It’s a good discipline, you know, because I mean, there might be rough edges, but it kind of suits the spirit of the film. India, I mean, Mumbai changes every day, I mean, every day. So, you’re not going to be, you’re never going to quite get it, so you might as well just get on with it, do it. It’s a really interesting place like that. Anyway, we made Toronto just. We just got it ready in time. Yeah, at the opening night you were saying you had screened at Telluride, but then made some changes in the meantime, so we’re seeing the finished product. So, it’s brilliant to have done it like that, and we’ve had a bit of a roller coaster ride because we thought, I mean, not but four, six weeks ago, we were dead, really, in terms of North America because of the problems with Warner Independent. But, it’s amazing the way these things work out, and they had the good grace to show it to Fox Searchlight who jumped at it. And then, we had these two festivals so that we set up, and you get a kind of response from the audience that is your dream, really, for this kind of film. So, yeah, it’s been very lucky, really. I think, it would’ve been so easy to… well, we see documentaries and other films set in India that sort of focus on the squalor and say, my, how unfortunate this is. Aren’t these people living in such terrible conditions? Your film still shows those conditions, but it doesn’t feel… you don’t feel sad. They don’t feel like that. They’re happy like that. It’s their home! How dare you come and say about it, “That’s not good enough.” They’re very proud, and very industrious people. They’re all working. They’re all trying to get their kids in school, if they can afford it, fairly basic school, but school. You know, very wonderful people, really. I just tried to tell it from their perspective. And poverty is a very changeable expression. What is… Is it a poverty of kind of bricks and mortar, and there’s a poverty of the soul, and there’s a lot going on in India that you kind of like, you learn about yourself and about our society that we’ve got a lot to learn from it still, even though apparently they’re learning from us in terms of economics and in terms of development and that kind of thing, but it doesn’t bring you everything, as we know. So, you try and tell it from their perspective. I had an amazing experience with this guy who, in this slum, the Dharavi slum, which is, Dharavi is, it’s known as the biggest slum in the world. There’s two million people living in it. It’s a city, it’s its own city. It hasn’t got a transport system other than your feet, but it’s actually a city. It’s an extraordinary place. And we went in this one place, and this guy… It was like this, it was this size, full of vegetable oil cans, square vegetable oil cans, that big, and he’s recycling them. They recycled in India way before we got into recycling. They’ve been doing it for donkeys’ years. It’s part of the culture that people throw their rubbish away, and you think, oh, that’s disgusting, but they throw it away because there’s these people who live their lives picking it up and recycling it. There’s this pattern that you begin to see about the way, what looks like dirt to begin with, there’s actually a pattern. Anyway, this guy, I went in, and visually, it was just, oh! I thought, please let us film here, and he said, I won’t let you film here. He said, you can look around, he said, but I’ve let National Geographic in here twice to take photographs for the magazine, and each time, I’ve asked them, please don’t say that we’re poor. And he said, each time, they just present us as being poor. He said, I’ve run this business for 30 years. I employ like between 25 and 50 people, depending on, you know, and I give them a good wage, and they kind of like, and he said, I don’t want to be told that I’m poor. And you’ve got to take that on board, you know, when you want to make a film there, I think. And then, you know, obviously you saw that it’s pretty brutal, some of it, which it is, you don’t try and hide that because that stuff still goes on. The children that you cast, especially the very young ones, I mean, the film stays with them a lot longer than I think other films would. A lot of times you see children in the opening scenes, and then there’s the flash cut, and the train goes by, and suddenly they’re an adult, you know? That’s the studio, of course. That’s the pressure the studio, studio will always go… they want to get to the crumpet, the ones the people are going to identify with or desire or everything like that. No, I mean, we had, we were absolutely clear where we did that. And the kids were great. They were really, you could tell they would be fantastic when we met them. How did you find them, just a long casting process? Long casting process, had a great casting director there called Loveleen Tandan, and she became the co-director on the film because I had her there every day, and I kind of relied on her enormously to make sure I didn’t make any big mistakes, and obviously, translation for the kids. And translation of the text because obviously, if you translate a line of Simon’s literally into Hindi, a seven-year-old is just going to go… So, they had to be given a line that was the equivalent in Hindi. Like a really good example of it is they say at one point, “I’m hungry.” The expression in Hindi slang that he says is, “I’ve got rats running round my tummy,” which is great, you know? [laughter] That is a great expression. It’s a great line. And that’s what they say, but it’s too long to put it up, and so we put up, “I’m hungry.” So, what they’re saying isn’t exactly what you’re reading, but it is the equivalent for a poor Hindi person, for the kind of slang that they use. They were great, the kids. And, again, the fact that we had a huge, they let me take a huge amount of money meant that we could do their section of the film in Hindi, because seven-year-olds don’t speak English. They start learning it at about seven. They pick it up from all sorts of places. Television, movies, music. Lot of music in there that they’re picking up English from. That kind of the whole cultural history of Britain and English within India. So, they’re picking it up gradually. So, we made the transition between seven and 14. By the time they’re 14, they can speak English. And because we wanted it to be a mainstream movie, they do. They’re going to speak English from there on. Don’t they have a name for that genre? The Hinglish film? Hinglish, yeah. They kind of blend it together. They do blend it together and it’s a living language there. They’re really, it’s developing and evolving the whole time. Strange words. They’re an odd mix too, you know. I love how you featured the phone centers because there’s a novel called “Transmission” by this Indian author named Hari Kunzru. It focuses on - one of the characters is an employee of one of these phone centers - and it talks about how they physically train them to speak in different dialects. To know the general geography so they can sound like, “Oh no, I live in your town.” Casual kind of references to things. They learn. They have this briefing session at the beginning of the day where they get the sports results from America from the night before. [laughs] So that if they’re caught they can fall back on it. It’s just bizarre. Had you ever been to India before? No, I hadn’t actually. My dad was there in the war. He served as a young man training. He went to Bombay with tens of thousands of other British guys to invade Japan. They were going to invade Japan. They were getting ready to invade Japan to sail off and presumably die, a great deal of them, if that happened. He was there when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. And it’s weird, he would say we knew then. He didn’t talk about it very much, but he said he knew then we weren’t going to die, we were going to go home. And he said a couple of weeks later we just sailed home. That was it, it was over, It’s amazing. The thing he did talk about a lot was India and being in Bombay. Because the kind of casual racism in Britain that was on our televisions in the 1960s and 1970s to do with the Indian population that was moving to Britain. It used to make him so mad, because he’d say Indians are really clean, you know. Don’t believe that. But, it would make him really annoyed. I remember he’d watch this stuff on the television, he’d be really annoyed. He said, “They take a pan of water. They wash themselves when they go to the loo. Not like us, using paper.” He said they’re much cleaner. It was sort of amazing, you know. Anyway. The Amitabh Bachchan character, is that a real Indian movie star? Oh, he’s massive. He’s the most, apart from Gandhi, he’s probably the most famous name in India. And he’s a magnificent actor. He has starred in hundreds of films, hundreds. So, when you mention his name it is like mentioning… It’s very difficult to find an equivalent in the West. There isn’t one. You’d have to put together Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise and Michael Phelps. You’d have to put them together and say it’s that level of royalty. Absolute royalty. He’s a God to people. Outside his house in Bombay, people wait for days and days and days to catch a glimpse of him as he leaves. Would he visit the slums like that? I mean, was that him sort of being gracious and signing autographs for the poor people in the slums or was that a created incident? No, he has to travel everywhere by helicopter and stuff like that. And there is a little, this slum… Slums grow up around the airports and this airport he’ll have used many times. And I guess they may have run over there like that without discussing the scene we used. Did you learn anything about yourself making this film? I mean, being in India the whole time. What did you learn? Yes. I think, that’s the most important thing you do learn. Is that you go there and you think you’re going to learn about Indian culture and all those kinds of things. And you do obviously because you do research to make sure it’s accurate and all that kind of stuff. The biggest thing is that hippy thing they tell you that you’re going to learn something about yourself and you do and you learn. You learn that you cannot control everything. And it’s this destiny thing of course. But, in the West, we don’t really value, because we believe we can change our destiny by hard work, by application, by all these kind of things. But there, it’s so vast and you’re so small, you’re so meaningless. You learn your place, really. That you have a place and that you have a role. It’s very interesting and it’s a humbling thing. Because your role might be as a film director or it might be as a barber. But, you learn a kind of acceptance really that in the great scheme of things, there’s you and you’re there and you’ve got to learn. And there’s great value in learning that. And it helps you make the film, because it learns you to respect the place you’re in. And when you do that, you’re not trying to change it. You’re not trying to control it, make it… You’re opening yourself to it. And when you do that, this terrible hippy thing happens where it comes back to you and serendipity takes place. These things fall into your lap, these gifts. Like we got this guy, this composer, the most amazing composer, Rama. In a million years, we wouldn’t have got him because he’s like so busy in Bollywood. We got him, you know? And we find this guy Dev in London. I was running out of guys to find. I couldn’t find him in Bollywood, they were all the wrong types of guys. And my daughter says you should watch this program on British television called “Skins.” And you look, “My God, oh there he is.” I don’t want to sound like a hippy because I’m not a hippy. I was a punk. I was like anti-hippy. Well, that’s what you said, it was a terrible hippy thing because you’re like, “Oh, I’m embracing it, but I didn’t want to.” I know. And I never thought, you know, I never thought I’d speak like that, but it’s true. It happens to you. It is mysterious and you can’t quite put it into words, but you sense it so strongly there. And I love the place, actually. For all its faults, and its biggest fault I think is not the dirt and the fact that there’s no toilets and all that kind of stuff. The biggest problem with it is there’s sexism. It’s not in the film because it’s not relevant to our story, but it’s a terrible place for women in many ways. The role of women. There’s huge advances they’ve got to make there still. But, I did, despite all that, I love the place. If tomorrow someone came and said, “Danny, you can no longer make films,” what would you do? I’d be a… I’ve always wanted to be a taxi driver. You know, around London. Wow. I’ve always fancied that. I mean, when I was a kid I wanted to be a train driver. Because from my kind of background that was like what you aspired to. To be a train driver was a big thing, so you never thought you’d be a film director. But, I’ve often thought about cabbying. And sometimes when you’re working and you’re, “I think that’d be really interesting to do that.” I’d love to do that. I mean, I’d love to be able to do something more useful with my life like be a medical technician for Médecins Sans Frontières or the Red Cross or… You know, I went to Uzbekistan with MSF actually a couple of years ago to write a report for them on - they were tackling multi drug resistant TB there - and write about it in the British Press. I’d love to do something useful with my life, but I’ve wasted myself on these bloody films. Well, yeah. You could ostensibly be a taxi driver tomorrow. To become a medical technician you’d have to go to school for several years. Yes, I know. But, taxi driver, you could do it. And I’ve always thought I should do that. I should just do it and it would be really interesting what you saw. Because I live in a really interesting area of London. I live in the East End of London where the Olympics are going to be, and it’s a Bengali area now. 60% Bengali population. And there’s a lot of drugs. A lot of the drugs that come into London are coming in through there. They’re a great trading people, Bengali people, and one of the trades is drugs. I think, you’d find out a lot about all that. So, I think, that’d be really interesting. So, I’ve often thought I should do it and then make a film about it. Yeah, I was just thinking it sounds like a film. You do it for a year and then you could kind of like make something of it. Because you’d find out so much. I remember going out, we lost this cat. My daughter’s favorite cat disappeared. You know they vanish. And we’d end up, me and her mom would end up going out at three, four o’clock in the morning around the back streets shouting “Jenny, Jenny,” looking for this cat. And you’d see the guys going around in these unmarked cars, the drug squad. Because they were kind of, they were police, you could tell. Because they’d come up to us and they’d realize you’re some weird couple looking for a cat, and they’re just like… But, they’re looking for these young Bengali kids kind of trading drugs and doing deals and stuff like that. Wow. Danny Boyle, director, punk, hippy, taxi driver, I like it. [laughter] Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/unclefestering/archive/2008/6/26/31762.aspx Post By: unclefestering
Post To: unclefestering Blog
Post Date: 6/26/2008 10:07:29 PM
Body: Sunshine is such an impressive throwback to the almost lost thinking man’s genre of Science Fiction that you can almost forgive it’s final act. The combination of director Danny Boyle and Cillian Murphy is as potent as it was in 28 Days Later. The lives of six billion people rest in the hands of eight, fraying crewmembers. Taking place in the near future when the sun is rapidly cooling due to an unexplained phenomenon; the movie starts with the spaceship, the Icarus II, hauling a bomb the size of Manhattan to the sun in an effort to restart the star. This is the second and final attempt. The first ship that was sent seven years ago never completed the mission. All of the remaining fissionable material on Earth was mined to make this last bomb. The crew is beginning to come apart as the movie starts. They are about to enter the dead zone where radiation from the sun will cause too much interference for messages to be sent to home and they won’t receive any either. When Capa (Murphy) uses all the time left sending a message to his family, a fight breaks out between him and the second in command Mace (Chris Evans). The fight gets settled by the ship’s doctor (Cliff Curtis) who is developing a seriously dangerous addiction to sun bathing. The women of the ship are holding things together slightly better. Corazon (Michelle Yeoh) spends most of her time in the ships gardens, the source of food and air. Rose Byrne’s Cassie is having a fling with Capa. Once they enter the dead zone, Mace picks up the signal of the original Icarus, parked in an orbit between the Sun and Mercury. After a vote the crew decides to deviate from their original course and try to use the other ship’s bomb as a backup to their own. In addition they want to solve the mystery of what happened to the other mission. The navigator makes a serious mistake when he changes the ships course and several critical systems fail. Now the other ship is needed for its resources as much as it’s bomb. The tension, the look and the feel of the movie to this point are flawless. The crew members are becoming victims of their own psychological flaws and these take a toll on the others. As the more rational members are forced to sacrifice themselves in attempts to save the mission, it leaves the lives of every one left behind on the Earth in the hands of the less stable members. At this point the movie, just as the movie is getting to its most interesting ideas, is goes off the rails when Boyle introduces a boogeyman out to stop the crew of the Icarus II. The whole concept of the character is to be a real physical threat as opposed to the psychological danger that the crew pose to themselves. The look and feel of the movie is top rate. You get a real physical sense of the spaceship’s layout. The space suits used by the crew have a pretty unique look. They reminded me of Kenny from South Park drifting in space.
]]>Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:07:29 GMTunclefesteringunclefestering Blog6/26/2008 10:07:29 PM Sunshine is such an impressive throwback to the almost lost thinking man&rsquo;s genre of Science Fiction that you can almost forgive it&rsquo;s final act. The combination of director Danny Boyle and Cillian Murphy is as potent as it was in 28 Days Later. The lives of six billion people rest in the hands of eight, fraying crewmembers. Taking place in the near future when the sun is rapidly cooling due to an unexplained phenomenon; the movie starts with the spaceship, the Icarus II, hauling a bomb the size of Manhattan to the sun in an effort to restart the star. This is the second and final attempt. The first ship that was sent seven years ago never completed the mission. All of the remaining fissionable material on Earth was mined to make this last bomb. The crew is beginning to come apart as the movie starts. They are about to enter the dead zone where radiation from the sun will cause too much interference for messages to be sent to home and they won&rsquo;t receive any either. When Capa (Murphy) uses all the time left sending a message to his family, a fight breaks out between him and the second in command Mace (Chris Evans). The fight gets settled by the ship&rsquo;s doctor (Cliff Curtis) who is developing a seriously dangerous addiction to sun bathing. The women of the ship are holding things together slightly better. Corazon (Michelle Yeoh) spends most of her time in the ships gardens, the source of food and air. Rose Byrne&rsquo;s Cassie is having a fling with Capa. Once they enter the dead zone, Mace picks up the signal of the original Icarus, parked in an orbit between the Sun and Mercury. After a vote the crew decides to deviate from their original course and try to use the other ship&rsquo;s bomb as a backup to their own. In addition they want to solve the mystery of what happened to the other mission. The navigator makes a serious mistake when he changes the ships course and several critical systems fail. Now the other ship is needed for its resources as much as it&rsquo;s bomb. The tension, the look and the feel of the movie to this point are flawless. The crew members are becoming victims of their own psychological flaws and these take a toll on the others. As the more rational members are forced to sacrifice themselves in attempts to save the mission, it leaves the lives of every one left behind on the Earth in the hands of the less stable members. At this point the movie, just as the movie is getting to its most interesting ideas, is goes off the rails when Boyle introduces a boogeyman out to stop the crew of the Icarus II. The whole concept of the character is to be a real physical threat as opposed to the psychological danger that the crew pose to themselves. The look and feel of the movie is top rate. You get a real physical sense of the spaceship&rsquo;s layout. The space suits used by the crew have a pretty unique look. They reminded me of Kenny from South Park drifting in space. http://www.spout.com/blogs/stevetheman/archive/2008/6/23/31579.aspx Post By: SteveTheMan
Post To: SteveTheMan's Reviews
Post Date: 6/23/2008 10:06:35 PM
Body: An intense sci-fi film that isn't restricted by its genre, Sunshine proves to be a very satisfying film that delves into humanity and its conflicts, passions, and dreams. By adding a slice of horror and fantasy into the mix, Sunshine definitely breaks out of the mold. The story is a great one, and the actors play their roles perfectly within it. With varying combinations of emotions and attributes, such as desperation, dedication, and selflessness, the characters seem very believable and intriguing to viewers. This and the plot, which revolves around the mission the characters undertake: to rejuvenate the dying sun to save Earth, keep the audience wondering what will happen next. In addition, the stunning special effects really add to the movie with exciting shots that leave the audience in awe. The screenplay and cinematography are top notch too. All in all, a truly excellent movie that should have garnered much more attention and acclaim than it did.
]]>Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:06:35 GMTSteveTheManSteveTheMan's Reviews6/23/2008 10:06:35 PMAn intense sci-fi film that isn't restricted by its genre, Sunshine proves to be a very satisfying film that delves into humanity and its conflicts, passions, and dreams. By adding a slice of horror and fantasy into the mix, Sunshine definitely breaks out of the mold. The story is a great one, and the actors play their roles perfectly within it. With varying combinations of emotions and attributes, such as desperation, dedication, and selflessness, the characters seem very believable and intriguing to viewers. This and the plot, which revolves around the mission the characters undertake: to rejuvenate the dying sun to save Earth, keep the audience wondering what will happen next. In addition, the stunning special effects really add to the movie with exciting shots that leave the audience in awe. The screenplay and cinematography are top notch too. All in all, a truly excellent movie that should have garnered much more attention and acclaim than it did. http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/awesome/MemberTagFilms.aspxawesome
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