With more than 10 years of filmmaking under his belt, British director Danny Boyle isn’t an easy guy to peg down. From the greed-fueled backstabbing of “Shallow Grave” to the heroin-induced madness of “Trainspotting” or the paradise anarchy of “The Beach,” Boyle, 48, seems to specialize in illuminating the darker reaches of human nature. He follows up the gruesome smash “28 Days Later,” however, with a genuine change of pace. “Millions” is the story of a pair of kids who discover a bag of money along the railroad tracks near their new house. As they struggle to decide how to use the money, the realities of greed, crime and hypocrisy invade their idyllic suburban neighborhood. Hiatus spoke to Boyle last month about his new film and some of his most memorable works.
Cold, hard cash:
“Millions” is a pretty different movie than your other films. Was making it a fairly new experience?
Well, it’s funny — they all feel different. I know for people watching it, “Millions” is a really big surprise. It’s quite a heartwarming film really, but they feel coherent to me, and if anything, you feel there’s a danger that you’re making the same movie over and over.
Some of the buzz on the Internet has already called “Millions” “Shallow Grave” with kids.
It’s funny. There is a bag of money, and I suppose that is a similarity. But it comes from a really different period. When we made “Shallow Grave,” there was a lot of greed in Britain at the time. It felt like a very cynical age. This is a bit more spiritual, in a way. It’s about the opposite of cynicism, about having faith in people. There’s stuff about everyone’s obsession with money and what to do with it, but for (the main character) it’s very simple what you should do with it.
When you have a new film coming out, how much do you think about how well it’s received?
Well you obviously do keep an eye on it, and it’s very painful when it doesn’t work, really painful. Obviously it’s amazing when it takes off, and there’s no way you can ever predict it. Some of the films we made which have worked, like “28 Days Later” and “Trainspotting,” we thought, “There’s no way it’ll play in America. It’ll never even open there,” and yet there’s such an appetite for movies here that if it’s a decent film, people don’t pre-judge it. You never expect anything, but you always hope.
You’ve had a couple ventures into making big-budget films, but it seems like the smaller films you’ve done have been more successful. Would you ever consider doing another $50 million film, or are you sticking to smaller budgets?
Well, I think you’re right. I certainly seem to be stronger at that kind of stuff. But you always as a movie-goer love big movies as well. I think there’s something about cinema that when it’s on a big scale and it plays all around the world, there’s nothing better. So yeah, I’m still tempted, in a way. The next movie we’re doing is a bit bigger, kind of a medium-scale film, a sci-fi film called “Sunshine.” We’re hoping to start shooting July 11. When we go back to the UK we’re going to be setting that up.
Is it cast already?
No, no. In fact one of the things I’m doing while I’m here is doing a bit of casting, so we’ve just started from scratch with it.
Speaking of casting, people have said that a backlash against Leonardo DiCaprio after “Titanic” was one reason “The Beach” wasn’t well received. What did you end up thinking of the decision to cast him?
Well, I think Leo’s a great guy and a very good actor. He’s amazing, and if you watch “The Aviator,” he’s fantastic. It shows what a wonderful actor he is. We — well I got swamped by the scale of “The Beach.” With a kind of film that costs that much, you have to make a lot of your decisions beforehand. It becomes an industry, whereas one of the reasons I like working on a smaller scale is that you can kind of make it up as you go along. It’s easier to sustain the energy level of the film when I don’t have to make all the decisions beforehand. But if you’re going to spend a lot of money you’ve got to earn it back. Fifty-million dollars is a lot of money. I feel very responsible, so it’s important to cast a movie star in a film that costs $50 million. You can’t cast unknowns on that kind of scale. It just doesn’t work.
Speaking of “The Aviator,” the Oscars are coming up — how much attention do you pay?
There’s a lot of attention paid in Britain, even though we usually don’t watch them. They’re on at like three in the morning. I went to it once because we got a nomination for “Trainspotting.” It was very disappointing because we were sat at the back and couldn’t see anything. It felt like it hadn’t really started, and then it was five hours later and it was over. We didn’t win, of course, but if you do get an award I imagine it’s a pretty great experience.
Do you have a pick for best picture?
I’ve seen “The Aviator” and I loved watching it. I’m a big fan of Leo, and obviously Scorsese is a huge inspiration. I don’t think there’s anybody out there making films that he hasn’t played a big part in your life as a filmmaker. My favorite film of last year was “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” I really loved it.
It’s almost 10 years after “Trainspotting” now. Do you get sick of people asking you about it?
Well, it’s very gratifying that people love it so much. You don’t feel connected to it in the same way because, it’s funny, the more popular the films are, the less you feel connected to them. People know more about it than I do! The ones that nobody goes to see — they’re the ones you cherish really. But it’s really nice that people love “Trainspotting.” We’ve got a long-term plan to do a sort of sequel to it, not an easy cash-in sequel; it’s a sequel based on those same characters when they hit middle age. We want the actors to have hit middle age as well. It would be this group of hedonists who’ve abused themselves so long and what they do about that stage of their life. Those characters really have a hold over people. People still remember them very vividly.
Although the main characters are kids, “Millions” is adult in a lot of ways. Do you have a target audience for that movie?
It’s like anybody who’s got a mom, really. But it’s not a kid’s film. It’s more for people looking back at when you were a kid. You hope your films appeal to everyone. Even if they’re a bit too violent for people or too scary, you try and exclude no one.
