Now that James Franco’s dream to play a character on General Hospital (just to see how difficult it was to do a soap opera) has been realized, now he can focus on more important matters, like playing the mountaineer Aron Ralston in Boyle’s man-vs-nature tale, 127 Hours.
This is another true story that Hollywood has sought fit to bring to the big screen. What happened is that in May 2003, Ralston spent five days with his right forearm pinned under a boulder during a climb. He used a dull knife to amputate his own limb, then scale down a 65-foot sheer wall and hiked out before finally flagging down a family that were gracious enough to give him water and food.
Back in 2003, there was a documentary entitled Touching the Void that was a similar account about a man (Joe Simpson) who broke his leg while trying to climb to the top of the Siula Grande in Peru, and his miraculous journey to get back down to the basin.
Danny Boyle is one of the supreme talents in the director’s chair right now, coming off an Oscar win for Slumdog Millionaire. He he reunites with persons who were also winners that night, screenwriter Simon Beaufoy and producer Christian Colson.
127 Hours will begin shooting in March in Utah for a late 2010 release.
Source: Variety
