Latest news with #SlumdogMillionaire
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘28 Years Later' Director Danny Boyle On Return To Horror Series & Whether 007 Is In His Future
Yes, there are a lot of horror movies out right now, and there are a lot of zombie everywhere from TV to film. But when they're great, they'll definitely find an audience. Enter the next installment of Danny Boyle's 28 infected feature series 28 Years Later, which elevates the undead genre to sophisticated storytelling (a helluva second act) and visual dimensions, the latter as the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire director shot the movie on an iPhone 15 ProMax with a Theo Angelopoulos sense of natural lighting. There was always a want for both screenwriter Alex Garland and Boyle to return to the 28 films after 2009's 28 Weeks Later (which was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo). While talks fell apart back in the day, coming away from a global pandemic can serve as an inspiration for a director and scribe whose previous work on the subject seemed prescience for a year when 2020 was destitute and shut down. Boyle expounds on the duo's inspirations in the latest episode of Deadline's Crew Call podcast. More from Deadline '28 Years Later' Review: Danny Boyle Delivers Severed Heads And Broken Hearts In His Gory Zombie-Horror Threequel '28 Years Later' Trailer: Zombie That Looks Like Cillian Murphy Looms Over Jodie Comer In Gripping Teaser For Danny Boyle Sequel '28 Years Later' Walking To $56M+ WW Opening, 'Elio' Orbiting $50M+ WW As 'Dragon' Looks To Lord U.S. Box Office - Preview On what makes this zombie-like feature (ya see, they're undead and they've been made that way by a virus) stand apart is its tender story of a father, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who takes his young son, played by Alfie Williams, to the quarantine UK isle where the monsters run amok. Says Boyle, 'There's a movement toward beauty, and as well it's not just about horror, and there is lots of horror in it, but it's also a movement toward beauty as well.' Boyles explains why he's not directing all three planned films (the third movie doesn't even have financing yet, per the director, but Sony has the option to make it after winning the trilogy in an auction) and whether he'd ever think of directing Bond again in the new Amazon MGM Studios regime. 28 Years Later is opening Friday in what's looking to be a $28 million-$30 million domestic debut. Listen to our chat with Boyle below: Best of Deadline 'Stick' Soundtrack: All The Songs You'll Hear In The Apple TV+ Golf Series 'Stick' Release Guide: When Do New Episodes Come Out? 'The Buccaneers' Season 2 Soundtrack: From Griff To Sabrina Carpenter
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What Are The Critics Saying About ‘28 Years Later'?
Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, and producer Andrew Macdonald launched 28 Years Later, the latest addition to their seminal zombie franchise, last night in London. In the pic, written by Garland, it's been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory. And now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well. More from Deadline International Insider: '28 Years Later' Arrives; Landmark Netflix-TF1 Deal; NHK At 100 Danny Boyle Says He Would Never Make Oscar-Winner 'Slumdog Millionaire' Now Amid "Cultural Appropriation" Concerns '28 Years Later' $5M+, 'Elio' $2.5M-$3M Previews - Thursday Night Box Office The film stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes, and Jack O'Connell. The buzz has been big on the threequel. Late last year, Sony reported that an early trailer for the flick, in its first week of release, became the most watched horror trailer in 2024 at 60.2M global views and the second biggest trailer of all-time behind It Chapter Two (96M views). But what are the critics saying about the film? Deadline's Damon Wise said the film is 'by far the most political of the three films' and offers a 'particularly scathing' commentary about 'Brexit Britain and its little-islander mentality.' 'Alex Garland's script makes great play of how life in Britain has become stunted,' Wise wrote. 'Flirting with folk horror, he makes the islanders little better than the infected, inviting comparisons with The Wicker Man as they carouse in the community center while a faded portrait of Her Majesty the Queen looks down.' Aussie film magazine Filmink said 28 Years Later boasts 'uniformly excellent' performances with 'Taylor-Johnson and Comer both doing fine work, and Ralph Fiennes absolutely wonderful as poetic, death-obsessed Doctor Ian Kelson.' 'However, it's young Alfie Williams who steals the show, giving us a likable and nuanced young tacker to root for and hope that he manages to survive,' the magazine concluded. Empire Magazine described the film as a 'pure horror experience' full of 'ferocious, fizzing with adrenaline.' 'The film's opening half, in particular, is phenomenal — an electrifying exercise in terror, amplified by Young Fathers' astonishing score,' the magazine wrote. In a review titled '28 Years Later Is Totally Nuts,' Vulture said the film 'carries on the tradition of using genre as a Trojan horse to explore the sensation of life today.' But the outlet notes that some 'horror fiends will find themselves disappointed with a movie that's too weird, too somber, too unresolved to deliver on the promised thrills.' Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson wrote that he found himself 'confused by the film's unexpected tone, but also captivated by it.' 'Knowing that another film in the series has already been shot goes a long way toward softening the blunt impact of the film's sudden, ambiguous ending,' Lawson wrote. Time Magazine also zeroed in on the film's ending. 'There's much that's terrifying and wonderful about 28 Years Later, but the ending is jarring and dumb, in a kick-ass heavy-metal way, and it breaks the mood,' Stephanie Zacharek wrote for the magazine. 'It's as if Boyle had gotten cold feet about ending the movie on too solemn a note. But this ending, no matter how you feel about it, is really just a beginning. Boyle and Garland have two follow-up movies in the works. The next, already filmed, is directed by Nia DaCosta, of Candyman and The Marvels; Boyle will return for the third.' Genre site Fangoria, however, said the threequel was 'the best film in the franchise.' '28 Years Later, by comparison, incorporates the world-building of its predecessor but retains the intimacy of the original film,' the magazine wrote. 'Garland's script rightfully observes that a few expository intertitles do more than enough to establish the world into which the audience and the film's characters are plunged into, and then dials into the lives of a family that's doing its best to navigate an unimaginable situation both environmentally and interpersonally.' The film is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with 95%. Sony will release the film is in theaters on June 20. Best of Deadline 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More 'Stick' Soundtrack: All The Songs You'll Hear In The Apple TV+ Golf Series 'Stick' Release Guide: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
International Insider: '28 Years Later' Arrives; Landmark Netflix-TF1 Deal; NHK At 100
Another week down, Insiders, and it was a hot one in Europe. We had journalists in France and Spain (at two separate events) to gather up the top stories from the continent, while in the UK, the zombies returned, angrier and scabbier than ever. Sign up to the newsletter here. '28 Years Later', A Threequel Arrives More from Deadline BBC Hits AI Startup Perplexity With Legal Threat Over Content Scraping Concerns BBC's BAFTA-Winning Doc Series 'Once Upon A Time In...' Turns Eye To Middle East Danny Boyle Says He Would Never Make Oscar-Winner 'Slumdog Millionaire' Now Amid "Cultural Appropriation" Concerns Worth the wait: To me, it feels like just yesterday watching Cillian Murphy wander around empty London streets in hospital scrubs in 28 Days Later. It wasn't though – it was 23 years ago and I'm just showing my age. No doubt, however, that the love for Danny Boyle's zombie horror franchise has lasted all that time, as proven by the noise around the premiere of the third instalment, and the first since 2007's 28 Weeks Later. 28 Years Later had become the second-most watched horror trailer in history well before Boyle, writer Alex Garland and producer Andrew Macdonald debuted it in this week in London at a world premiere in Leicester Square – and all the signs are that it's cutting through. Our social media guru Nada and Breaking Baz were on the red carpet to hear from the likes of Boyle, Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes, along with Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Motion Picture Group, Tom Rothman, who tipped us that the film will make a star of 14-year-old lead Alfie Williams. The story is set nearly three decades after the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory and brought down society, in a film that our critic Damon Wise called a 'particularly scathing' commentary about 'Brexit Britain and its little-islander mentality.' Reviews have been pretty good, with some criticisms about the tone, pacing and ending, and its Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes currently sits at 92%. You can go ever deeper by listening to Anthony D'Alessandro catch up with Boyle on our Crew Call podcast, where they discuss the long journey getting the film to screen and why the Slumdog Millionaire director won't be directing all three of the planned modern-day 28 trilogy. Anthony also noted Thursday in his box office round-up that 28 Years Later is tracking for a global start of around $56M. Netflix The Aggregator 'A new kind of partnership': Big platform news this week came out of Cannes Lions, where Netflix and French commercial network TF1 announced a potentially market-altering partnership. In part borne out of the friendship between TF1 CEO Rodolphe Belmer and Netflix's top brass, the companies unveiled a 'new kind of partnership' that sees five linear TF1 channels and 30,000 hours of on-demand content streaming on Netflix. To this point, Netflix has shown little interest in aggregating linear services – or any rival services, for that matter – but analysts have pointed out that the Netflix-TF1 relationship is a special case that has already seen them create Netflix's first daily soap in France. However, there's a sense this is the start of something bigger, as our analysis of the development showed. Truth is, global streamers need to attract older, linear-minded viewers and traditional players need the leverage and access to younger viewers of streaming services. 'Diagonal integration and co-operation' is what the big brains over at Ampere Analysis are calling it. You heard it here first. NHK At 100 Earthquakes and giant squid: Japan's NHK turned 100 this year and there has never been a better time to celebrate the role of public broadcasting. Good thing, then, that we landed an exclusive interview with President Nobuo Inaba, who detailed how the challenges facing pubcasters today may differ from a century ago, but the battles remain the same. In the 1920s, it was the Great Kantō earthquake that compelled the need for a public broadcaster, while today it has become the flood of disinformation driven by social media from which the public needs saving. Only public broadcasters can battle through the noise, Inaba argued, as he called for greater global collaboration and more shows for young people. Of course, public broadcasters enjoy nothing more than a celebration and a 100th birthday lends quite the excuse. In NHK's case, a series of special programs have been airing through the year, including a documentary titled Neo-Japonism and anime adaptation Cocoon. Pressed on his favorite NHK show of the century, Inaba went a bit curveball by opting not for critically-acclaimed drama or doc, but for a natural history series made with Discovery, which captured the world's first video images of a giant squid. Dive deeper. Big Week For BBC Phillips gets Moore responsibilities: The race to succeed Charlotte Moore at the BBC has ended – and the biggest job in British TV commissioning is staying in-house. A month after Deadline had revealed acting Chief Creative Officer Kate Phillips was the frontrunner, the BBC rubber-stamped the appointment, and into a new era we go. She called the job 'one of the best roles in the business at an incredible organization,' and it's clear she's got a vision of where she wants to take the UK's biggest public broadcaster. With a background in unscripted, those in drama and comedy are understandably watching closely, but it's worth noting they did the same when the Left Bank Pictures-bound Moore became Director of Content in 2016, thanks to her past in documentary. Fair to say her tenure went more than okay. That's one big headache for BBC Director General Tim Davie fixed, but there's migraine of a problem over at BBC News, where a PwC consultant has been drafted in to steer an internal review into bullying and misconduct allegations on flagship show Breakfast, which Jake first revealed in this shocking report in April. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. From CineEurope To Cuenca's Conecta Slate of play: The U.S. studios had their game faces on and film slates at the ready at CineEurope in Barcelona, Spain, this week. The annual event drew its regular industry crowd, and Nancy Tartaglione was on the ground gathering up the biggest and best of the news. Lionsgate returned after sitting 2024 out, sprinkling some magic dust in the form of Now You See Me: Now You Don't and confirming Nancy and Matt Grobar's scoop that Glenn Close and Billy Porter have joined the cast of The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. The studio was followed by Sony showing the first 28 minutes of 28 Years Later, Universal touting new Spielberg and Nolan projects, Warner Bros playing 30 minutes of July tentpole Superman, Paramount confirming Meet the Parents 4 and Disney teasing Toy Story 5 during a presentation that culminated in a James Cameron tribute to Jon Landau. Following the fun, Nancy and Anthony revealed the global box office is red hot, with Gower Street predicting a $12.4B summer. Over 300 miles away from Barcelona in the quiet city of Cuenca, I touched down for Conecta Fiction & Entertainment, the annual Spanish TV industry get-together. Nothing quite as splashy there, but reps from Max and Lupin maker Gaumont Television France gave their views on some live issues, as boiling hot temperatures gave way to biblical floods in the mountainous locale. Read the news from Cuenca here. The Essentials 🌶️ Hot One: The BBC has greenlit Twenty Twenty Six, a successor to comedy series W1A and Twenty Twelve, with Hugh Bonneville reprising his role and Chelsey Crisp, Paulo Costanzo and Stephen Kunken among a blended UK-U.S. cast. 🌶️ Another One: Martin Compston and Aimée-Ffion Edwards are leading the cast of The Revenge Club (w/t), which has Paramount+ UK and Ireland, Gaumont UK and Fremantle attached. ☘️ One for luck: Webtoon manwah Teenage Mercenary is being adapted as a TV anime series by Japan's Line Digital Frontier. ⛑️ Saved: Ireland's Playhouse Studios has acquired the assets of UK post house Lipsync, which went into administration last month. Most staff have been retained. 🔭 In focus: Filming Italy Sardegna, the annual Sardinian TV fest that kicked off yesterday. Diana also spoke to festivals specialist Tiziana Rocca in this interview. 👨🏻⚕️ Doctor, doctor: Russell T Davies has poured more fuel on the fire over the future of his BBC and Disney+ sci-fi series Doctor Who, saying, 'We don't know what's happening yet.' 5️⃣0️⃣ Fiddy: Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson has taken his 50 Cent Action Channel overseas for the first time. 🦁 Heart of a Lions: Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine launched a Gen Z label, Sunnie, at Cannes Lions. 🤝 New roles: Lookout Point co-CEOs Laura Lankester and Will Johnston hopped over to A24's UK team. 🏆 Winners: Swedish drama Vanguard, Germany's One Day in September and CW series Good Cop/Bad Cop took home Golden Nymphs from the Monte-Carlo TV Festival. Jesse Whittock wrote this week's Insider. It was edited by Jake Kanter. Best of Deadline 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More 'Stick' Soundtrack: All The Songs You'll Hear In The Apple TV+ Golf Series 'Stick' Release Guide: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
New Indian Express
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Danny Boyle says he would not make 'Slumdog Millionaire' today due to cultural appropriation concerns
Danny Boyle is proud of his Oscar-winning 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire, but the filmmaker acknowledged that he cannot make the film in the present climate. Boyle told The Guardian that if he were to make Slumdog Millionaire today, he would use a filmmaker from India for it. He admitted that it is a flawed method to go to India with a native language-speaking cast and crew and make the film, because it would mean an outsider's perspective, which he considers an act of 'cultural appropriation'. Boyle's film tells the story of a kid from Mumbai's ghetto who takes part in a quiz program with millions up for grabs. It stars Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor, and Irrfan Khan, among others. Slumdog Millionaire won a Best Picture Oscar, and the film won critical appreciation, especially for its virtuoso filmmaking. However, many in India criticised Boyle for the film's depiction of poverty in the country, with some calling it 'white man's imagined India'. A sequel to the film is in development, with Swati Shetty and Grant Kessman's Bridge7 banner acquiring the rights for it. However, given Boyle's recognition of the film's flaws, he is unlikely to be part of the project as a director. Meanwhile, Boyle's latest film is 28 Years Later, which follows 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. The film stars Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Alfie Williams, Ralph Fiennes, and Jack O'Connell, among others.
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Director Danny Boyle admits Slumdog Millionaire 'would never be made today' unless Indian filmmakers were at the helm
Director Danny Boyle has admitted that Slumdog Millionaire 'would never be made today' unless Indian filmmakers were at the helm. The producer, 68, reflected on the 2008 movie which he directed as he said him and the team in Mumbai who shot the scenes were 'outsiders'. The film was a loose adaptation of the novel Q & A by Indian author Vikas Swarup and followed the story of teenager Jamal (Dev Patel) from the slums of Mumbai. He becomes a contestant on the show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati?' and when interrogated under suspicion of cheating, he revisits his past, revealing how he had all the answers. Danny told The Guardian: 'Yeah, we wouldn't be able to make that now. And that's how it should be. 'It's time to reflect on all that. We have to look at the cultural baggage we carry and the mark that we've left on the world.' 'We made the decision that only a handful of us would go to Mumbai. We'd work with a big Indian crew and try to make a film within the culture. But you're still an outsider. It's still a flawed method. 'I'm proud of the film, but you wouldn't even contemplate doing something like that today. It wouldn't even get financed. Even if I was involved, I'd be looking for a young Indian film-maker to shoot it.' The moviemaker has recently stepped back into the director's chair to helm the new horror 28 Years Later - written by Alex Garland - 23 years after the pair's first film 28 Days Later hit cinemas. He recently admitted it was a 'nightmare' filming naked zombies for new horror movie. Danny has revealed they needed to take extra care not to have 'naked' actors on the set because they had strict rules in place to protect the film's child star Alfie Williams. Speaking to PEOPLE, Danny explained: 'I mean, if you're recently infected [with the zombie virus], you'd have some clothes, but if you've been infected for a long time, the clothes would just disintegrate with the way that you behave. 'We never knew that [about rules governing nudity on set when there's a child present] going in, it was a nightmare.' Danny went on to explain the work-around they came up with, adding: 'Interestingly, because there was a 12-year-old boy on set, you're not allowed for anybody to be naked, not really naked, so they look naked, but it's all prosthetics ... 'So it's like: 'Oh my God,' so we had to make everybody prosthetic genitals'.' Danny revealed he was keen to push boundaries with the elements of nudity and gore in the film and he's glad studio bosses were supportive of his plans. He told Variety: 'I think one of the wonderful things about horror is that you're expected to maximize the impact of your story. Everybody wants to do that with a drama, with the romance, whatever. 'But with horror, it's obviously gonna be brutal, some of it. What we loved was setting it against an innocence that's represented by the various children in it, and also the landscape, the beauty of the landscape, the nature. 'Having those two forces stretches your story as far as you can go, if you maximize them. That was our principle and the studio was supportive of that, of course they were.' On Thursday critics weighed in on the new zombie horror movie. A follow-up to the 'great' 2002 film 28 Days Later, Boyle and Garland assembled a star-studded cast including Harry Potter star Ralph Fiennes, 62, and fellow Brit Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 35, for their latest endeavor. Two decades on from the original which saw a deadly virus plague London, the new movie finds a group of survivors living on the secluded island of Lindisfarne. Boyle and Garland's new project has received a heap of positive reviews from critics following early screenings. Rotten Tomatoes for instance have handed the movie an impressive 94 percent critic approval rating after rounding up the thoughts of more than 91 film reviewers. The Daily Mail's Brian Viner was incredibly impressed after watching the series' latest gory installment, dubbing the movie the 'best post-apocalyptic horror-thriller film I have ever watched'. Brian wrote: 'With the terrifying and electrifying 28 Years Later, director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland have delivered the best post-apocalyptic survivalist horror-thriller film I have ever seen. Which sounds like limited praise, yet it's a much more crowded field than you might think.' Robbie Collin in The Telegraph also handed 28 Years Later a rave review, with the critic scoring the 'terrifying' horror movie five stars out of five. 'Garland employs a strain of peculiarly British pulp humour - very 2000 AD, very Warhammer 40,000 - to undercut the ambient dread,' Collin wrote. 'And flashes of Arthurian fantasias and wartime newsreel footage (as well as a pointed double cameo for the now-felled Sycamore Gap tree_ serve as regularly nudges in the ribs as he and Boyle ty with the notion of a 21st century British national myth.' The film too received five stars from The Times critic Ed Potton, who hailed Jodie Comer's 'impressive as always' performance. The journalist wrote: 'Is this the most beautiful zombie film of them all? It's hard to think of another that combines such wonder and outlandishness with the regulation flesh-rending, brain-munching and vicious disembowelment.' The BBC 's Caryn James gave the highly-anticipated film four stars out of five as she dubbed Ralph Fiennes's performance 'scene-stealing'. '28 Years Later is part zombie-apocalypse horror, part medieval world building, part sentimental family story and - most effectively - part Heart of Darkness in its journey towards a madman in the woods,' she wrote. 'It glows with Boyle's visual flair, Garland's ambitious screenplay and a towering performance from Ralph Fiennes, whose character enters halfway through the film and unexpectedly becomes its fraught sole'. Empire also awarded 28 Years Later four stars out of five, with journalist Ben Travis writing: '28 Years Later is ferocious, fizzing with adrenaline. The mainland thrums with a pervasive sense of immediate danger; when the infected arrive (and, do they arrive), it is breathlessly tense.' Reviews in The Guardian and The Independent were slightly more critical however, with journalists scoring 28 Years Later with three stars. Peter Bradshaw wrote in The Guardian: 'A little awkwardly, the film has to get us on to the mainland for some badass action sequences with real shooting weaponry - and then we have the two 'alpha' cameos that it would be unsporting to reveal, but which cause the film to shunt between deep sadness and a bizarre, implausible (though certainly startling) graphic-novel strangeness.' While The Independent 's Clarisse Loughley wrote: 'Even if 28 Years Later feels like being repeatedly bonked on the head by the metaphor hammer, Boyle's still a largely compelling filmmaker, and the film separates itself from the first instalment by offering something distinctly more sentimental and mythic than before.' 28 Years Later has become the best horror ticket pre-seller of 2025, with the film expected to gross around $30million in its first weekend. 28 YEARS LATER - THE REVIEWS The Daily Mail (FIVE STARS) Rating: With the terrifying and electrifying 28 Years Later, director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland have delivered the best post-apocalyptic horror-thrill I have ever seen. The Times (FIVE STARS) Rating: Jodie Comer is impressive as always in the latest instalment of the post-apocalyptic series The Telegraph (FIVE STARS) Rating: This transfixingly nasty zombie horror sequel, starring Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes, is Danny Boyle's best film in 15 years The Evening Standard (FIVE STARS) Rating: Jodie Comer, young Alfie Williams and Ralph Fiennes have a monsters' ball in this supercharged third outing for the 28 Days Later series BBC Culture (FOUR STARS) Rating: Alex Garland and Danny Boyle have reunited for a follow-up to their 2002 classic. It has visual flair, terrifying adversaries and scene-stealing performance from Ralph Fiennes. Empire (FOUR STARS) Rating: The sequel we needed is both the film you expect, and the one you don't. There's blood, but also real guts and brain and heart - visceral cinema soaked in viscera. The Guardian (THREE STARS) Rating: This tonally uncertain revival mixes folk horror and little-England satire as an island lad seeks help for his sick mum on the undead-infested mainland. The Independent (THREE STARS)
