Danny Boyle

Trivia

• He declined an offer to direct the fourth film of the Alien franchise, instead making A Life Less Ordinary using British finance.
• He then moved to Hollywood and sought a production deal with a major US studio.
• He also directed a short film Alien Love Triangle (starring Kenneth Branagh), and was intended to be one of three shorts within a feature film.
• Made his feature film directorial debut with Shallow Grave.
• In between the films The Beach and 28 Days Later Boyle directed two TV movies for the BBC in 2001 - Vacuuming Completely Nude In Paradise and Strumpet.
• He also directed five productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
• While at university Boyle dated the actress Frances Barber.
• When he was 14 years old, Boyle applied to transfer from his local school to a seminary near Wigan, but was persuaded from doing so by a priest.
• His mother was from Ballinasloe in County Galway, and his father was born in England to an Irish family.
• He is best known for his work on films such as Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire.

Quotes

• When I was making Sunshine (2007), it suddenly struck me: No director has ever gone back into space, with the exception of franchise directors. If you look at the record, you'll find that's true. I now know why.
• [His next project, Sunshine (2007)] We're doing this film Sunshine (2007). In fact, we're casting for it in a few minutes actually. It's about a mission to the sun. It's a sci-fi set in space. They're flying a bomb to the sun and the bomb is like the size of Kansas, this immense bomb that they built in space. They're flying it to reignite a section of the sun which is failing, but it's really about a mission that went earlier, seven years earlier, and failed. So it's sort of mystery of what happ
• That's what's wonderful about actors sometimes, is that's who we watch on the screen... Some of us are interested in directors, but really the vast majority of us are interested in actors. You experience the films through the actors, so they're all locked into your imagination in some kind of layer of fantasy or hatred or wherever they settle into your imagination. They make much better fodder for this kind of thing [interviews] than a director.
• I think I'm better at making films on my home turf, really. You learn from experience and I've learnt that through The Beach (2000/I). I love big movies, like Gladiator (2000), but I'm better at smaller films.
• I want my films to be life-affirming, even a film like Trainspotting (1996), which is very dark in many ways. I want people to leave the cinema feeling that something's been confirmed for them about life.
• I don't want to make pompous, serious films; I like films that have a kind of vivacity about them. At this time of the year you think about awards and if you want to win one you think you should make serious films, but my instinct is to make vivacious films.
• I learned that what I'm better at is making stuff lower down the radar. Actually, ideally not on the radar at all.
• You don't realize it, but often people are frightened of the director.