Danny Boyle And Fox Searchlight Sign Three-Year Deal
Danny Boylehas drawn up a three-year production deal with Fox Searchlight and Pathe Pictures, according toVariety. Both companies were involved inSlumdog Millionaire; through this deal the two companies will co-finance and co-produce Boyle’s next project(s) over the next three years, with Pathe handing distribution in much of Europe and Fox Searchlight controlling the US and other territories. The filmmaker has a long history with Fox Searchlight, as the company produced and/or distributed28 Days Later,SunshineandMillions.
More important is that Fox Searchlight is the company that initially passed onSlumdog Millionaire, then stepped in at the last minute to distribute the film after Warner Independent Pictures faced closure and thought about sending the film direct to DVD. Searchlight then helped campaign like crazy for the film during Oscar season. Seems natural for the company and filmmaker to make a pact.
Unfortunately, we might only expect one film out of this deal. Boyle isn’t the fastest director. He averages one film every two years. Though if he doesn’t have to worry about pulling together financing until 2012, perhaps he can make the scant one year betweenSunshineandSlumdogseem like a regular thing rather than anomaly.
Does this mean we’ll seeMaximum City, another film set in India which Boyle isreportedly circling, any time soon? Maybe not, going on theLA Timesreporting of this story. The paper says that Boyle is looking at a film about mountain climber Aron Ralston, who in 2003 self-amputated part of his arm after he was pinned by a boulder for five days. Think that doesn’t sound like a viable film concept? Check out Ralston’s own amazing and horrific account of the amputation below.
I like the idea of that movie quite a lot. Just think about Boyle using his current cred to make a film about one man trapped in the middle of nowhere. (Likely bolstered by flashbacks, hallucinations and more, but still.)
