It’s official then! Danny Boyle finally gets his wish. The project which he’s been circling for quite some time will indeed be his next. You can put all that MAXIMUM CITY talk aside for now because Variety has confirmed that Boyle is set to direct 127 HOURS based on a true story of Aron Ralston, the American mountain climber who self-amputated part of his arm when it was pinned in a 2003 back-country hiking accident…
Let me remind you how hardcore this is, Ralston amputated part of his arm with a dull knife, all by himself. It wasn’t a surgical knife, it wasn’t even sterile, it was just something that he needed to do to survive after getting stuck there for 5 freakin’ days.
Could you imagine how grueling that must’ve been? Spending 5 days contemplating whether to wait for help or cut off your arm. I do not want to find myself deciding between the two.
That’s not all, after he cut off part of his arm, Ralston then scaled a 65-foot sheer wall and hiked out before running into a family that gave him water and food.
All I can say is… never underestimate man’s will to survive.
Part of the movie that’s probably going to be tough to watch is when Ralston tried to break the bone in his arm.
So expect this movie to be one of those with one lead character holds the screen through most of the ordeal like Tom Hanks in Cast Away and Ryan Reynolds in the upcoming Buried.
The report recognizes the fairly old rumor about Ryan Gosling possibly playing Ralston but there’s no confirmation on that although I think Gosling would do an excellent job.
127 HOURS will be Boyle’s 5th movie with Fox Searchlight after Millions, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Slumdog Millionaire, speaking of which, the same Oscar winning team will help him out again with this project. Simon Beaufoy will write the script, and Christian Colson will produce.
* Here’s Aaron Ralston describing that fateful day
