Moviefone Editorial

Tag: danny-boyle

  • Top Rated Movies From European Directors

    trainspotting movieLast time anyone checked — which was in 2015, by the way — Europe was home to 50 countries and 508.5 million people. Basically, asking for a list of the best European-directed movies is like going on Yelp and searching for the best restaurants in the third-most populous continent on earth: You’re going to get a whole lot of options.

    The good news is, you can start with a top-rated tasting platter. Like a tapas plate of some of Europe’s finest cinema, this movie tour lets you take in France, Sweden, Russia, England, and Italy from the coziness of your couch over the course of a weekend.

    ‘Breathless’ (1960)

    You can’t talk about Euro cinema without talking about the French New Wave. Throughout the 1950s and ’60s, directors like Jean-Luc Godard radicalized movie making with flicks that were equal parts real and surreal, socially relevant, and akin to good jazz music in their freewheeling style.

    You could melt a hole through your couch while you binge on French New Wave movies, but if you’ve got to pick only one, pick “Breathless.” It not only sums up the movement, it sums up everything great about French filmmaking — the passion, the naturalistic dialogue and performances, the chain smoking, the style, and the danger. Plus, romantic leads Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg are so timelessly cool, they’ll make you want to become either a criminal or an or expat. Pick your poison.

    ‘The Seventh Seal’ (1957)

    If you actually went to Sweden, chances are you’d see some wonderful castles. Alternatively, you can see a wonderful castle, plus a chess-playing incarnation of death, plus some of the most striking black-and-white visuals of all time if you just watch Swedish director Ingmar Bergman‘s “The Seventh Seal.” It’s tough to pin down the best of Bergman, but it’s easy to argue that this surreal morality tale — in which Max Von Sydow’s stone-faced knight buys more time from the Grim Reaper by outwitting him in a board game — is his most iconic movie.

    Not only does the game-obsessed Death in “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey” pay homage to its greatness, Stanley Kubrick called Bergman “the best filmmaker at work today” back in 1960. And Kubrick probably knew some stuff about movies.

    ‘Stalker’ (1979)

    Poor Russia — sometimes it seems like its cinematic claim to fame is limited to providing action-movie bad guys when Nazis aren’t available. Good thing legendary Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky was here to clear that up for you.

    You could spend the weekend in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, or you could just watch Tarkovsky’s “Stalker” instead. Either way, you’re in for a long, strange trip of mind-bending visuals and hypnotic vibes. “Stalker,” though, will also give you a deeply symbolic story about a writer and a scientist on a quest through a dreamy wasteland in search of a room that can fulfill wishes. So it’s best to do the movie instead of the illegal thing.

    ‘Trainspotting’ (1996)

    In 2013, more than 40,000 U.K. film fans voted in a Telegraph poll for the best movie of all time. Their top choice? “Trainspotting.”

    “Trainspotting” put Scottish star Ewan McGregor and English director Danny Boyle — who’d go on to helm modern classics like “28 Days Later” and “Slumdog Millionaire” — on the radar, for good reason. Its visually insanity and laser-beam pace are absolutely necessary to contain this punk rock tale of heroin addiction, underage girlfriends, and the most unreliable bunch of reject friends ever. It’s a trip worth taking — from the safe distance of your futon, that is.

    ‘8 1/2’ (1963)

    No Euro trip is complete without a stop in Italy. You’ve got your pizza, your gondoliers and their funny hats, and you’ve got your Federico Fellini movies. His ’63 classic “8 1/2” — a rambling, raucous, and reality-altering steamroller about a frustrated director, his producer, his wife, and his mistress — has more verve and fire than the biggest Italian family reunion Nonna can cook up.

    And, really, what better way to cap off your European movie tour than with a movie about movies? Sometimes, it’s okay to get a little meta.

    Sources

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  • ‘Trainspotting 2’ Is Danny Boyle’s Next Film, With Original Cast

    Danny Boyle‘s lust for life has not waned since “Trainspotting” came out in 1996. A sequel to the edgy Scottish drug movie has been discussed for years now, but the director sounded confident when updating Deadline on “Trainspotting 2.”

    The original movie, based on Irvine Welsh’s novel, was written by John Hodge. Danny Boyle told Deadline that Hodge’s script for the sequel is terrific, and said it will be his own next film, depending on the actors’ schedules. “All the four main actors want to come back and do it,” Boyle said. “Now it is only a matter of getting all their schedules together which is complicated by two of them doing American TV series.”

    Those “two of them” are apparently Jonny Lee Miller (“Elementary”) and Robert Carlyle (“Once Upon a Time”), who were featured in the original along with main star Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Kelly Macdonald, and Kevin McKidd, whose character died in the movie. The sequel script is reportedly based on Irving Welsh’s book “Porno,” his own sequel to “Trainspotting.”

    Back in 2008, Boyle talked to Moviefone about making the sequel, saying he wanted to wait a while to let the actors (visibly) age the 10 years of the book. Here’s what Boyle said in 2008:

    Actually, I’ve got a bit of news on that one. We’ve had this plan for awhile now to make a film that’s generational; how they would be guys now who were clearly and visibly middle aged. Well, what’s just happened in Britain is that they’re preparing to release a new DVD of [Trainspotting], and they’ve done a series of interviews for the special features on the DVD … and good news is all the actors have come back to participate in these interviews. So I think that’s a sign that if we do get them looking right, they’ll be prepared to do it — that they’re getting to a point where they’re thinking, ‘Yeah, that could be interesting.’ Because everyone will have to be in the right frame of mind in order to do it; they need to age a bit still. I want them to feel different … and older.”

    They should be old enough by now, so we just have to wait for the schedules to align. Are you excited to (finally) see this sequel come to be, 20 years after the original?

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  • Danny Boyle’s ‘Steve Jobs’ Opens Telluride Film Festival

    The 42nd annual Telluride Film Festival kicks off with the world premiere of Danny Boyle’s “Steve Jobs” biopic on Friday. The Michael Fassbender-starring drama will debut along with gender equality period film “Suffragette,” and other Oscar contenders.

    “We always say ‘all glory goes to the filmmakers,’ but we’re really lucky to have a bunch of beautiful, beautiful films,” Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger said.

    Among the other highlights of the four-day festival in the picturesque Colorado resort town, two documentaries from Oscar-winning filmmakers will debut–Davis Guggenheim’s “He Named Me Malala,” about Pakistani female activist Malala Yousafzai and Charles Ferguson’s climate change study “Time to Choose.”

    Boyle, “Bitter Lake” director Adam Curtis and “Carol” actress Rooney Mara will be feted with tributes at the fest.

    The lineup includes:

    “Amazing Grace”
    “Anomalisa”
    “Beasts of No Nation”
    “Bitter Lake”
    “Black Mass”
    “Carol”
    “45 Years”
    “He Named Me Malala”
    “Heart of a Dog”
    “Hitchcock/Truffaut”
    “Ixcanul”
    “Marguerite”
    “Mom and Me”
    “Only the Dead See the End of War”
    “Rams”
    “Room”
    “Siti”
    “Son of Saul”
    “Spotlight”
    “Steve Jobs”
    “Suffragette”
    “Taj Mahal”
    “Taxi”
    “Tikkun”
    “Time to Choose”
    “Viva”
    “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom”

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  • Michael Fassbender Is Gunning for Oscar in New ‘Steve Jobs’ Trailer

    After watching the new trailer for “Steve Jobs,” Sony’s gonna be kicking themselves for letting this movie go to Universal.

    The hotly-anticipated biopic, from director Danny Boyle and writer Aaron Sorkin, features Michael Fassbender in the titular role of the late Apple CEO. Here, he absolutely crushes the Sorkin-ese, going all-in for a Best Actor nod come awards season.

    Sure, the film — which also stars Kate Winslet and Seth Rogen — has “Oscar Bait” written all over it. But attention must be paid to the scary-good quality filmmaking going on here.

    “Steve Jobs” hits theaters October 9.

  • ’28 Months Later’ Is (Finally) Happening, Following Alex Garland’s Story

    A third movie in the “28 [Timeframe of Choice] Later” zombie infected franchise has been discussed for so long, Moviefone had a story back in 2008 called “Danny Boyle Considers Directing ’28 Months Later.’” It’s sure as heck been more than 28 months since that plan, but maybe the issue was that no one had a good idea for another sequel. Until now.

    We still don’t know the idea, but Alex Garland — who wrote “28 Days Later” (2002) and had a distant connection to “28 Weeks Later” (2007) — told Indiewire a third movie is moving forward with producer Andrew McDonald, based on an idea Garland came up with himself. “About two years ago, Danny started collaborating on the potential to make ‘Trainspotting 2,’ another sequel,” Garland said. “In that conversation, an idea for ’28 Months’ arrived. I had a sort of weird idea that popped into my head. Partly because of a trip I’d taken. I had this thought, and I suggested it to Andrew and Danny, but I also said I don’t want to work on it. I don’t really want to play a role, and Andrew said, ‘Leave it to me.’ So he’s gone off and is working on it.”

    Awesome. No further details were shared, but it’s good to hear that 1) they waited for a worthy idea and 2) a key producer is on board to deliver. Hopefully The Walking Dead,” which launched in 2010 — so hopefully this movie moves as fast as the “28 Days” infected and does not shuffle slowly like most zombies.

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