Director Danny Boyle on the set of SUNSHINE (2007).
© Fox Searchlight
Mania Talks with SUNSHINE Director Danny Boyle
By: Sonya AlexanderDate: Saturday, July 21, 2007
Many sci-fi films have had an end-of-the-world scenario, films like Armageddon (1998)and V for Vendetta (2005), usually with the notion that mankind’s survival hinges on the bravery of one man. The same formula holds true for director Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, but he uses a singularly compelling concept, that in 50 years the sun will be dying, and a technical genius which make the film seem fresh and original.
The earth’s citizens have pooled their resources to send a group of scientists to re-ignite the sun. The crew of Icarus II consists of Capa (Cillian Murphy), Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada), Corazon, Cassie (Rose Byrne), Trey (Benedict Wong) and Harvey (Troy Garity), all of who start out with optimism on their mission but are slowly thrown into emotionally nebulous territory as one thing after another goes wrong. They must eventually come face to face with the source of life in order to save the world.
Boyle, who directed Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, is known for his frenetic directing style. For this film he’s reunited with sci-fi wunderkind writer Alex Garland, who wrote 28 Days Later, and producer Andrew Macdonald, of 28 Weeks Later and Last King of Scotland fame. Boyle wanted to make something that was entirely believable, while at the same time fantastic. He was able to tell us recently how Sunshine came to be.
Mania: Can you talk about your primary influences to the film? You mentioned you had three films you pay homage to.
Boyle: Well, there are moments….it becomes a sort of journey of discovery. I remember watching Alien and at the beginning, the ship’s quiet….but there are these bouncing toys on little extended things…what are they doing in the film. I remember thinking, “He’s an advert director, isn’t he, Ridley Scott? But one of the things you realize when you make a film like this is you have to suggest motion. Because you have this problem of having this huge, fake vehicle that’s not moving, so you have to create a sense of it in motion. So, you have to do two things, create a starfield for it to pass across and you put things in the ship that groan or move. Those things were in respect to Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey. We have a character Pinbacker. The guy who played Pinback in Dark Star, Dan O’Bannon, wrote Alien. See, it all fits in in the end.
Mania: These seemed like an old Ray Bradbury story. It’s not about the science or the technology, it’s about the people, ordinary human beings. In that sense, do you feel the film is a throwback to a more traditional science fiction film?
Boyle: It is a love letter to the great sci-fi, what we call serious sci-fi, or what we call hard sci-fi. Which is thoughtful, which is mind challenging. There are some great sci-fi writers that it stems from. Alex is a huge Bradbury fan. It’s definitely in that world.
Mania: In a film like this, you sort of necessarily find yourself repeating things that have been done in a film like this. There always seems to be a signal from somewhere, some kind of explosive decompression, need to be emergency spacewalk. How do make a movie like this without falling into a cliché and making it fresh and new?
Boyle: You’re right, there are a sort of limited amount of things you can do in these types of stories and they do sort of start to resemble each other a bit. But, we have this journey to the sun, which hasn’t really been done, to our amazement, and seems like the most extraordinary journey you could make as a human being. To travel to the source of life. So, you hope that that will give enough to maintain the freshness, even if some of the ingredients are inevitably familiar.
Mania: How were the actors? They didn’t look like they were wearing much make-up, to give it a realistic look. Were they okay with that?
Boyle: I was very clear to them that this was a realistic film. That it wasn’t like cinematic fantasy, although at the end, that is fantasy…that you can literally put your hand up and touch the sun. It’s an absolutely realistic premise. And we also concentrated on the realism of what it would be to have been to have spent 16 months in the company of each other in a series of rooms. Also, both the girls are incredibly beautiful women, so they weren’t in need of any make-up…!
Mania: Are you a softy? This has a lot of emotional points. Millions made me cry. Can you talk a little bit about the soft side of your films?
Boyle: Millions made me cry…! There’s a bit in Sunshine, when there’s the music and he’s walking through the spacecraft on his own. I love crying in films. If it’s a good film, I’ll cry. I was weeping in Titanic. Though I have a sort of cynical humor in most of my films, I’m good-natured and I believe in people. I hope the soft-side comes across.
Mania: Do you think the success sci-fi shows like Lost and Heroes will have an effect on what sci-fi features will be made?
Boyle: I don’t know. That’s a very interesting question. I’m sure they’re debating that at the studios. The interaction between tv shows and movies and how they influence each others. A lot of actors have gone to tv because they couldn’t find enough film work and have become huge stars again through these shows. I used to love the Star Trek tv series, but have never seen any of the films. Loved Dr. Who. Thought it’s not nostalgic, our film’s a throwback to 70’s sci-fi.
Mania: How does having a hit franchise like the 28 Days one affect your doing films like Sunshine?
Boyle: It helped a lot. It gave us the money and trust to have the confidence to go out and do it on our own terms. The first one made Fox a huge amount of money…so they give you more money for the next time. I think they would have preferred that I direct the second one. There’s an idea for a third one, but I don’t know if anything will come of it.
Mania: How long did you shoot?
Boyle: We shot for three months in London. The weightlessness took the longest. It took twenty times longer than filming a scene with gravity. Most time in post was spent waiting for the CG render time. There’s this new CG power. They send the stuff to render farms. I’ve seen one in Japan. It’s like a huge shopping mall or warehouse. ¾ of it is fans used to keep computers cool. It comes back six months later. That’s to make sure the detail is believable, that you believe you’re seeing something on such a large scale.
Mania: So, Ponty Tower is next?
Boyle: Well, I’m working on something called Slumdog Millionaire, which is set in India. Ponty Tower is set in South Africa, but I won’t be working on that for awhile. Slumdog is about two kids and the girl they love. One goes on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and wins, it’s based on a true story.
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