Categories
Cinema Interviews

Danny Boyle talks about Sunshine

Danny Boyle directing SunshineThe new sci-fi drama Sunshine opens in the UK today and I recently spoke to director Danny Boyle about the film.

Since breaking through as a cinema director in the 90s with films like Shallow Grave and Trainspotting, Danny has moved across a wide variety of genres.

After adapting Alex Garland’s novel The Beach in 2000 with Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role, he went on to make cult horror hit 28 Days Later (2002) and, more recently, the gentle but affecting comedy Millions (2005).

Set in the year 2057, the sun is dying and Earth is gripped in a solar winter. A crew is then sent on a giant spaceship named Icarus 2 and their mission is to reignite our dying star with a nuclear device the size of Manhattan.

Equipped with a giant reflector shield that has used all of the planet’s resources of gold, the crew then begin to deal with the challenges of the such an enormous task and the dangers of venturing so near the sun.

Set firmly in the tradition of films like 2001, Alien and Solaris, it deals with some deep issues and features an international cast with the likes of Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh and Chris Evans (the guy from Fantastic 4, not the UK radio presenter).

I spoke with Danny about diferent aspects of the production ranging from: creating the sun on film; making the actors live in student digs in Mile End and why how a member of D:Ream ended up as a science advisor on the film.

Listen to the interview here:

[audio:https://www.filmdetail.com/audio/Danny_Boyle_on_Sunshine.mp3]

You can also download it as an MP3

Sunshine is out now at cinemas in the UK

> Check out the official Sunshine site
> They even have a Flickr account with images from the production
> The site also has a blog and you can subscribe to their RSS feed here
> IMDb entry for Sunshine
> Sunshine Fan Online – a fansite for the film
> Excellent Q&A interview with Danny Boyle & Cillian Murphy at the Guardian
> Get cinema showtimes for Sunshine via Google Movies

Image © Twentieth Century Fox & Dune Entertainment LLC. All Rights Reserved

2 replies on “Danny Boyle talks about Sunshine”

He is very passionate about his films and the whole process of making them. Of the many directors I’ve interviewed down the years he stands out (along with Aflonso Cuaron and Philip Noyce) as one of the most easy going and down to earth.

Comments are closed.