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Danny Boyle at AFF
Danny Boyle talked Saturday to Austin admirers about the difficulties of getting his hit “Slumdog Millionaire” distributed in the U.S. but expressed relief that film festivals in Telluride and Toronto had helped make his case.
The movie about a young man who makes it to the final question on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” was set in India, so that was the first problem, Boyle says. Then the distributors were told that part of the movie was in Hindi, with subtitles. “And of course that scares producers,” he said.
“I never thought it would work in the U.S.” for a while, said Boyle, a London director known for “Trainspotting” and “28 Days Later”.
But the audience reaction in Telluride and Toronto showed the “power of film festivals,” he said. And he’s optimistic that the film will have a good run in the States now. “I trust the audience,” he said.
Boyle says he loves to come to North America and talk about movies. “We’d never have such a big turnout to talk about a movie there,” he told the packed audience in the Stephen F. Austin ballroom. “In Britain, there isn’t a big film culture. We talk about the weather, the toilets, futball…. You don’t have much to live up to over there. But in France, India and America, you guys love film. It’s in your DNA.”
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