Projects matching: Danny Boyle

Synopsis

The entire planet has been devastated by a virus. The human race is facing extinction. A handful of survivors are left to salvage a future from the apocalypse.

Synopsis

An extraordinary tale of comic, chaotic characters living in an anarchic English urban landscape. Strayman is a spontaneous poet who is landlord to a pack of stray dogs. Unable to resist another of life's strays, he hooks up with Strumpet, a shy homeless girl with an exceptional gift for music. Knockoff, Strayman's neighbour overhears them singing Strayman's sporadic poetry to the soaring strains of Strumpet's guitar. Knockoff pronounces the birth of a new musical sensation, and the three of them set off for London in search of fame, fortune and Top of the Pops.

Synopsis

Tommy is a vacuum cleaner salesman gripped by the fever of closing the deal. He lives on puffa rice stored in his glove compartment, listens to motivation tapes of his own voice shouting 'Sell, sell, fucking sell' and his punters are up to their eyes in debt.

Even Tommy admits his 'soul's in holes'. He's sure the Golden Vac (the holy grail of vacuum salesmanship) can be his - if only he hadn't been saddled with Pete, a meek sales trainee trying to help his girlfriend quit stripping.

A made for TV film.

Synopsis

After the phenomenal international success of their trio of films, Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and A Life Less Ordinary, the directing, producing and scriptwriting team of Danny Boyle, Andrew Macdonald and John Hodge, decided to turn their attention to somewhere further afield - to paradise. Or rather, paradise lost. Alex Garland's novel, about a young man travelling in Thailand who finds his way to a beach-side utopia only to become the catalyst for its destruction, was the publishing phenomenon of 1996.

"We were looking for a project that had a truly international feel to it and Garland's book fit this criteria perfectly," says Macdonald.

The combination of the hip film-makers' du jour with the must-read of the late 1990s proved irresistible to both 20th Century Fox, which agreed to back the film, and one of the world's biggest film stars, Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio signed to play the lead in what would be his first film since Titanic.

"I wanted my next film to be something I felt strongly about and The Beach and the character of Richard were the first things I felt some kind of connection with," says DiCaprio. "Because Richard has been saturated with digital information he's never had any need to feel real emotion. So he sets off on a journey to Thailand to find something real in life. Richard is constantly looking for a much deeper sensation."

The Beach was shot in Thailand at the beginning of 1999 and premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February this year. It has taken approximately $140m worldwide to date.