Thus 127 Hours, the remarkable story of Ralston's time in -- and bloody escape from -- that Utah canyon. I spoke to Boyle about his own journey of survival on the project, his sense for choosing actors (including 127's stunning lead James Franco), the infamous amputation scene and why Hollywood always seems to produce two movies of identical topics at the exact same time.
[Spoilers follow]
As opposed to your other films, why were you involved in the screenplay with 127 Hours?
Because it was an adaptation of a book, I first wanted to approach Aron about it. I heard about the story in 2003 but I read his book in 2006. And then I wanted to approach him, so I wrote out a few pages of a particular approach. Because it's not a dialogue-based movie, it was always going to be slightly unconventional. And, also, I had this vision, this idea, about making the first-person experience not like the book -- which is intercut chapters of the canyon with the story outside the canyon going on: people looking for him, people missing him, or whatever. Back story and significant events in his life. And I thought, no, I want to do it just staying in the canyon.
I wrote it out, six pages, and then it didn't happen because Aron wanted to do it [as] more of a documentary at that time. So when we got back together again after Slumdog, I still had the same idea of how to do it, but Aron was more flexible about that now. So then it was a question of who was going to write it. So [producer] Christian [Colson] and I assumed Simon. We were all friends; we worked together very well, and he was a climber. A quite serious climber. We thought -- oh, this is easy. [Simon] said no!
Really?
I think he said no because... Well, he says that he said no because he couldn't really see it. I think the real reason he said no was because he knew I had an idea in my mind. And as an experienced screenwriter, he knew if he produced the first draft I would just be disappointed. Because I had too firm an idea.
Who was responsible for the humor in the film? There are some really fun scenes, which was shocking because you're expecting...
Grim?
Yeah, grim. But there are some actual laugh-out-loud scenes.
You've got to have humor in it. You've got to. You've got to have humor and surprise, because the tone. You've only got one character. James was going to have to be able to inhabit a number of different characters in terms of tone. And we were going to have to provide the opportunity for him to change the tone; we would need to change the tone with music, with editing, different ingredients you'd throw in there. The great scene that you're probably referring to is the talk show host?
Yes.
Simon wrote that.
I mean, there's a laugh track. I wasn't expecting that.
Well, we put the laugh track on, but he wrote the scene, which was brilliant. And, of course James inhabits the scene with that comic ability that I only realized he had when I saw Pineapple Express. He had that comic ability to be able to inhabit it. To make it real and touching, which you need to be as well. But also before that, funny. And it comes, obviously, at the low point. He just had that dream about a bloody flash-flood which both killed him and releases him and quenches his thirst, but it also takes him to his girl and he can't speak. It's a nightmare. It's a low point for him. And he comes out of it going, "Hi everybody! It's 7 a.m. here in Canyonland, USA!"
I'm not trying to make comparisons between these two movies -- because they are so different -- but as far as people being trapped, at the end of Buried I wanted to kill myself. After 127 Hours, I felt a little inspired.
I haven't seen Buried but it's really weird. It's only just been released in the U.K. and I had left to come on this tour so I didn't get a chance to see it. I was like, Should I see it? And then I thought that it was probably better if I don't see it, because, otherwise, I'll just get drawn into talking about the differences between the two. Because you wait... Well, (laughs) nobody waits for movies like this, it's not exactly something you look forward to. But there's a 10-year gap between [when] a movie comes along and, of course, two come along at once. The last one was, what, Cast Away?
I think it was. That' a good point, the two asteroid movies came out the same year, Armageddon and Deep Impact.
And then two ant movies came at once: A Bug's Life and Antz, they came along at the same time...
And two volcano movies, Dante's Peak and Volcano. Why is that?
It's a death wish. Because you know one of them is going to do worse than the other.
You work with a lot of actors like DiCaprio in The Beach, who are on that verge of superstardom. And Franco may or may not already be there...
DiCaprio was already a superstar on The Beach. He was in the biggest movie in the world, ever.
True. But with Titanic it was more heartthrob status than acting credibility. I don't think he was where he is now.
He's an amazing actor.
OK, DiCaprio aside, with actors like Dev Patel, Chris Evans and Ewan McGregor -- what is it that you see in the actors that you kind of know that they are destined for greater things?
I mean, I knew Leo's work from that amazing movie. What was it called? F*ck! When he plays the kid? The autistic kid?
What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
Ah! F*ck, I know. I mean, it's like if they gave Oscars for the performance of the last 10 years, that would win its 10-year category. It's just an extraordinary performance. Which I think they probably should, frankly. I think they should introduce that idea. Anyway, you meet them or you watch their work and you just feel a connection with them. Because acting is partly taste: There are some actors who are terrific actors, but they're not to your taste. And other actors are just right in there. It was completed for me with James. I've always admired him, but when I saw Pineapple Express, it was just like... Because when you can do comedy as well as the heavy, moody, serious stuff, you know you have a serious actor there. I remember seeing De Niro, it was that King of Comedy moment. You see him do this intense stuff, then you seem him do Rupert Pupkin and it's just like, There is one of God's great actors.
You tricked me with the arm scene. Because I thought the part that was going to get me was going to be the bone. What was that, a nerve or tendon?
It's a nerve.
A nerve, coupled with that music... That was tough to watch.
There's a big nerve in there between the two bones. And you read about it in the book; he writes in the book what that's like to touch that. And he writes it exactly as we shot it: He touches it a couple of times to test out how painful this is going to be. And it's unbelievably painful. He can't cut it; he has to pull it. He pulls it like a guitar string; it's like pulling a guitar string until it breaks. So we did it just like that.
There were some people more disturbed by the contact-lens scene than the arm.
Some people are! Yeah.
I wear contacts, so I didn't quite understand why.
I do, too, so I don't have any problem with that. I know some people are like, "AHHHH! He's putting his finger on his eye!" People are like that about it. It's weird, isn't it?
You seem pretty selective about what you choose to do. Is there anything you regret turning down over the years?
I don't tend to think like that. Sometimes I'll read stuff, then I'll go see it and think, Oh, he made a pretty good job of THAT. (Laughs) But, no, I don't. People say that about, "Can you imagine somebody else in the part?" I can't do that, either. Because sometimes you offer actors parts and they turn it down, so you have to move on to someone else and things like that. There's always a lot of things to regret, but if you dwell on them you won't get anywhere.
Have you decided what you're doing next?
Yes. I'm doing a play at the national theater in London-based on Frankenstein -- the Mary Shelley book -- a new adaptation of it which we've been working on for a number of years, which is very interesting doing it on the stage. And then I'm doing the opening ceremony at the 2012 Olympics, so I will be quite busy, sadly.
Movie-wise, any sequels in your future?
Ohhhh... No, I'd love to, but I'm going to be pretty busy on these commitments. And I was delighted to do both because I started in the theater. So I'm delighted to go back and hopefully give something back to the theater -- unless it's a complete disaster. And the Olympic Games are happening about a mile from my house. I'm very proud of that, actually, in a way that's difficult to explain. So when they asked me, I said yes. I didn't think about it, I didn't consult anyone, I just said yes.
Do you have free reign with the Olympic ceremony? I'm guessing you have to include that Olympic theme song in some way. Does that have to be in there somewhere?
"The Olympic Theme." It does, yeah. There are certain mandatory things that you have to include, specific things. There are some visual things that you have to include as well. But other than that, it's like an open book, really, depending on what you can afford and what you can engineer in a stadium as a live event and a TV event. Because it has got to be both, you know.