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![[the films of] Danny Boyle](http://web.archive.org./web/20110605082012im_/http://i.ytimg.com/vi/G9pVMzmblcc/0.jpg "[the films of] Danny Boyle")
| Name | Danny Boyle |
|---|---|
| Caption | Boyle in November 2008 |
| Birth name | Daniel Boyle |
| Birth date | October 20, 1956 |
| Birth place | Radcliffe, Lancashire, England, UK |
| Occupation | Director/Producer |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Awards | Academy Award for Best Director 2009 for Slumdog Millionaire |
Daniel "Danny" Boyle (born 20 October 1956) is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Millions, Sunshine, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director. Boyle was presented with the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award at the 2008 Austin Film Festival, where he also introduced that year's AFF Audience Award Winner Slumdog Millionaire. On 17 June 2010, it was announced that he will be the artistic director for the 2012 Olympic games opening ceremony.
It was a very strict, Catholic family. I was an altar boy for eight years, I was supposed to be a priest and really, it was my mother's fondest wish that I would become one.
He studied at Thornleigh Salesian College in Bolton, and at Bangor University.
Boyle is a trustee of the UK-based, African arts charity Dramatic Need.
In between the films The Beach and 28 Days Later Boyle directed two TV movies for the BBC in 2001 - Vacuuming Completely Nude In Paradise and Strumpet.
Boyle's next project was an adaptation of the cult novel The Beach. Filmed in Thailand with Leonardo DiCaprio in a starring role, casting of the film led to a feud with Ewan McGregor, star of his first three films.
He also directed a short film Alien Love Triangle (starring Kenneth Branagh), and was intended to be one of three shorts within a feature film. However the project was cancelled after the two other shorts were made into feature films: Mimic starring Mira Sorvino and Impostor starring Gary Sinise.
In 2004 Boyle directed Millions, His next collaboration with Alex Garland
In 2008 he directed Slumdog Millionaire, the story of an impoverished child (Dev Patel) on the streets of Mumbai who competes on India's variant of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, for which Boyle won an Academy Award. The film won eight Academy Awards in total. "To be a film-maker...you have to lead. You have to be psychotic in your desire to do something. People always like the easy route. You have to push very hard to get something unusual, something different."
{|class="wikitable" border="2" cellpadding="4" background: #f9f9f9; |- align="center" ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Year ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Film ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Role ! style="background:#B0C4DE;" | Notes |- | 1994 | Shallow Grave | Director | |- | 1996 | Trainspotting | Director | |- | 1997 | A Life Less Ordinary | Director | |- | 2000 | The Beach | Director | |- | 2002 | 28 Days Later | Director | |- | 2004 | Millions | Director | |- | 2007 | Sunshine | Director | |- | 2007 | 28 Weeks Later | Producer | |- | 2008 | Slumdog Millionaire | Director | Academy Award for Best DirectorBAFTA Award for Best DirectionBritish Independent Film Award for Best DirectorBroadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best DirectorChicago Film Critics Association Award for Best DirectorDallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best DirectorDetroit Film Critics Society Award for Best DirectorDirectors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing in a Feature FilmEuropean Film Awards - Audience AwardFlorida Film Critics Circle Award for Best DirectorGolden Globe Award for Best DirectorHouston Film Critics Society Award for Best DirectorLondon Film Critics' Circle Award for Best British Director of the YearLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best DirectorNew York Film Critics Online Award for Best DirectorOklahoma Film Critics Circle Award for Best DirectorPhoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best DirectorSan Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best DirectorSatellite Award for Best DirectorSoutheastern Film Critics Association Award for Best DirectorSt. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best DirectorToronto International Film Festival People's Choice AwardWashington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Director |- | 2010 | 127 Hours | Writer, Director | Utah Film Critics Association Award for Best Director |}
;Planned films 28 Months Later (TBA) Ponte Tower (TBA) Trainspotting sequel (TBA) Paani
Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Bangor University Category:Best Director Academy Award winners Category:English Roman Catholics Category:English film directors Category:English film producers Category:English people of Irish descent Category:English television directors Category:People from Radcliffe
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| Caption | Franco at the Spider-Man 3 premiere, April 2007 |
|---|---|
| Birthname | James Edward Franco |
| Birth date | April 19, 1978 |
| Birth place | Palo Alto, California, United States |
| Occupation | Actor, director, screenwriter, producer, painter |
| Yearsactive | 1997–present |
Franco achieved international fame with his portrayal of Harry Osborn in the Spider-Man trilogy. Since then, his films have included the war film The Great Raid (2005), the 2006 romantic drama Tristan & Isolde, and Justin Lin's drama Annapolis (2006). In 2008, Franco starred in the comedy stoner film Pineapple Express and received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. He played a prominent role in the 2008 biographical film Milk. In 2010, he played the lead role in Howl as Allen Ginsberg, and 127 Hours, a film about Aron Ralston, an American mountaineer who cut off his own arm to free himself after he was trapped beneath a boulder. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance.
Franco grew up in California with his two younger brothers, Tom and Dave, who is also an actor. Talented at mathematics, he interned at Lockheed Martin. Franco graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1996, where he acted in plays. He enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as an English major, but dropped out after his freshman year against his parents' wishes to pursue a career as an actor, taking acting lessons with Robert Carnegie at Playhouse West. Franco has since described the series as "one of the most fun" work experiences that he has had. In another interview, Franco said: "When we were doing Freaks and Geeks, I didn’t quite understand how movies and TV worked, and I would improvise even if the camera wasn’t on me ... So I was improvising a little bit back then, but not in a productive way."
His first major film was the romantic comedy Whatever It Takes (2000), in which he co-starred with his then-girlfriend, Marla Sokoloff. He was subsequently cast as the title role in director Mark Rydell's 2001 TV biopic James Dean. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Franco could have walked through the role and done a passable Dean, but instead gets under the skin of this insecure, rootless young man." He received a Golden Globe Award and nominations for an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
The success of the first Spider-Man film led Franco to reprise the role in the 2004 sequel, Spider-Man 2. The movie was well received by critics, and it proved to be a big financial success, setting a new opening weekend box office record for North America. With revenue of $783 million worldwide, it became the second highest grossing film in 2004.
In 2006, Franco co-starred with Tyrese Gibson in Annapolis and played legendary hero Tristan in Tristan & Isolde, a dramatization of the Tristan and Iseult story also starring English actress Sophia Myles. He then rode with the Navy's precision flying team, the Blue Angels, and completed training for his Private Pilot License in preparation for his role in Flyboys, which was released in September 2006; the same month, Franco appeared briefly in The Wicker Man, the remake of the seminal horror film. He appeared in the film alongside Nicolas Cage, who directed him in Sonny. Also in 2006, he made a cameo appearance in the romantic comedy The Holiday.
In 2007 he again played Harry Osborn in Spider-Man 3. In contrast to the previous two films' positive reviews, Nonetheless, with a total worldwide gross of $891 million, it stands as the most successful film in the series, and Franco's highest grossing film to the end of 2008.
He starred in the film Pineapple Express (2008), a comedy co-starring and co-written by Seth Rogen and produced by Judd Apatow, both of whom worked with Franco on Freaks and Geeks. In the New York Times review of the film, critic Manohla Dargis wrote: "He’s delightful as Saul, loosey-goosey and goofy yet irrepressibly sexy, despite that greasy curtain of hair and a crash pad with a zero WAF (Woman Acceptance Factor). It’s an unshowy, generous performance and it greatly humanizes a movie that, as it shifts genre gears and cranks up the noise, becomes disappointingly sober and self-serious." Franco's performance in the film earned him a Golden Globe nomination in the category for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy In 2008 he also appeared in two films by American artist Carter exhibited at the Yvon Lambert gallery in Paris. On September 20, 2008, James hosted the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL), and a second time on December 19, 2009.
Franco starred opposite Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, and Emile Hirsch in Gus Van Sant's Milk (2008). In the film, he played Scott Smith, the boyfriend of Harvey Milk (Penn). Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times, in review of the film, wrote: "Franco is a nice match for him [Penn] as the lover who finally has enough of political life." For his performance in the film, Franco won the 2008 Independent Spirit Award in the category for Best Supporting Actor.
In late 2009, Franco joined the cast of the daytime soap opera General Hospital on a recurring basis. He plays Franco, Franco calls his General Hospital role performance art; in summer 2010 the fictional Franco held an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, while the real Franco held an exhibit at the museum based on his experiences on the soap opera.
Franco made an appearance on the situation comedy show 30 Rock where he played himself and carried on a fake romance with Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) in a scheme concocted by their respective agents. In May 2010, he was cast to star in Rupert Wyatt's Rise of the Apes. Franco produced and directed a documentary titled Saturday Night documenting a week in the production of an episode of SNL. The film began as a short for an NYU class but grew due to his two episodes as host, while short stories he wrote for other classes appeared in Esquire and McSweeney's.
In 2010, Franco played poet Allen Ginsberg in the drama Howl, and has received acclaim for portraying mountain climber Aron Ralston in 127 Hours. His 2011 roles include the comedy Your Highness, opposite Natalie Portman, and Rise of the Apes, a science fiction film co-starring Freida Pinto.
On November 29, 2010, it was announced that Franco and Anne Hathaway will host the 83rd Academy Awards.
In 2011, Franco will direct a film version of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and appear in two episodes of ABC's General Hospital.
Art—painting in particular—is a talent Franco developed during his high school years while attending the California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA). His paintings were displayed publicly for the first time at the Glü Gallery in Los Angeles, California from January 7, 2006 through to February 11, 2006. Franco can also be seen painting in a scene in Spider-Man 3.
Franco enjoys reading on the set of his films. Pineapple Express producer Judd Apatow has said of him: "He's a very education-minded person. We used to laugh because in between takes he'd be reading The Iliad on set. We still haven't read The Iliad. It was a very difficult book. With him, it was always James Joyce or something."
Since April 2006, Franco has been in a relationship with actress Ahna O'Reilly. In 2008, Franco was named as the new face of Gucci's men's fragrance line. Viewed as a sex symbol, Franco was named the Sexiest Man Living in 2009 by Salon.com.
In response to questions regarding his sexuality now that he has portrayed three gay characters during his acting career, he insists he finds plenty more dimensions to the characters than their bedroom proclivities. "Or, you know what," he concluded, "maybe I’m just gay."
He was selected as the commencement speaker, the youngest, at his alma mater, UCLA, on Friday, June 12, 2009. On June 3, 2009, a press release announced Franco's cancellation as UCLA's commencement speaker due to a scheduling conflict, making it the second year in a row, after Bill Clinton, that the commencement speaker had canceled the appearance. On July 8, 2009, Franco and the Harvard Lampoon released a satirical video on prominent comedy website Funny or Die mocking his last-minute cancellation.
In the December 27, 2010 issue of Time Magazine, Franco was named by Joel Stein as "The Coolest Person of the Year."
Category:1978 births Category:Actors from California Category:American actors of Russian descent Category:American actors of Swedish descent Category:American film actors Category:American Jews Category:American people of Portuguese descent Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:American soap opera actors Category:American television actors Category:Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actor Golden Globe winners Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Independent Spirit Award winners Category:Jewish actors Category:Living people Category:Palo Alto High School alumni Category:People from Palo Alto, California Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni
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| Name | Darren Aronofsky |
|---|---|
| Caption | Darren Aronofsky in 2008 |
| Birth date | February 12, 1969 |
| Birth place | Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Film director, screenwriter & producer |
| Partner | Rachel Weisz (2001-2010) |
Aronofsky did not make a feature film until five years later, creating the concept for his debut feature, π, in February 1996. The low-budget, $60,000 production was sold to Artisan Entertainment for $1 million, and grossed over $3 million; it won both a Sundance Film Festival award and an Independent Spirit Award. Aronofsky's followup, Requiem for a Dream, was based on the novel of the same name written by Hubert Selby, Jr. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Ellen Burstyn's performance. After turning down an opportunity to direct Batman Begins, Aronofsky began production on his third film, The Fountain. The film was released to mixed reviews and poor box office results.
However, his next film, The Wrestler, rebounded with positive reviews and healthy box office. Both of the film's stars, Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei, received Academy Award nominations. Rourke also won a Golden Globe for Best Actor and Bruce Springsteen won for Best Original Song for his title song. Aronofsky's next film, Black Swan, received further critical acclaim, being nominated for four Golden Globes including Best Director, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, a record 12 BFCA nominations and Directors Guild of America Award nomination. As of January 2011, his film The Wolverine, a sequel to , is scheduled to begin production in March.
In April 2001, Aronofsky entered negotiations with Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow to direct the then-untitled science fiction film that became The Fountain, with Brad Pitt in the lead role. In June 2001, actress Cate Blanchett entered talks to join the film, which Aronofsky, wanting the title to remain secret, had given the working title of The Last Man. Production was postponed to improve the script and to wait for Blanchett, pregnant when she joined, to give birth to her child in December 2001. Production was ultimately set for late October 2002 in Queensland and Sydney, Australia. By now officially titled The Fountain, the film had a budget of $70 million, co-financed by Warner Bros. and New Regency, which had filled the gap after Village Roadshow withdrew. Pitt left the project seven weeks before the first day of shooting, halting production. In February 2004, Warner Bros. resurrected it on a $35 million budget with Hugh Jackman in the lead role. In August, actress Rachel Weisz filled the vacancy left by Blanchett. Aronofsky began dating actress Rachel Weisz in 2001, and they became later engaged in 2005. Their son, Henry Chance, was born May 31, 2006, in New York City. Released in North America on November 22, 2006, the film earned $10,144,010 in the United States and Canada, and $5,761,344 in other territories, and was considered a flop.
The Wrestler received great critical acclaim, and both Rourke and co-star Marisa Tomei received Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG, and BAFTA nominations for their performances. Rourke won a Golden Globe, as did Bruce Springsteen for the original song the rock star wrote for the film. The Wrestler grossed $44,674,354 worldwide on a budget of $6,000,000 making it Aronofsky's highest grossing film to that point.
Aronofsky had been hired in March 2007 to direct the boxing biography The Fighter, but dropped out the following year to work on MGM's aborted RoboCop remake, In July 2010, MGM scrapped the project, which one film site said Aronofsky had left due to uncertainty over the financially distressed studio's future. Aronofsky himself, when asked in September 2010, replied, "I think I'm still attached. I don't know. I haven't heard from anyone in a while." The film starred actress Natalie Portman, whom Aronofsky had known since 2000. She also introduced Aronofsky to Mila Kunis, who joined the cast. Aronofsky said Roman Polanski's Repulsion and The Tenant were "big influences" on the style of the film. Black Swan has received high praise from film critics, and received a record 12 Broadcast Film Critics Association nominations, four Independent Spirit Award nominations, four Golden Globe nominations, three SAG nominations, and many more accolades. Aronofsky himself received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director.
On November 9, 2010, Aronofsky and Weisz announced that they had been "separated for some months", but "remain close friends and are committed to raising their son together in NYC".
In April 2010, before the couple broke up, Rachel Weisz was announced to star in the Aronofsky-directed Jackie, about the life of Jacqueline Kennedy following the assassination of her husband, president John F. Kennedy.
Category:American film directors Category:American Film Institute Conservatory alumni Category:American film producers Category:American Jews Category:American screenwriters Category:Camp Rising Sun alumni Category:English-language film directors Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Independent Spirit Award winners Category:People from Brooklyn Category:Surrealist filmmakers Category:1969 births Category:Living people
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| Name | Freida Pinto |
|---|---|
| Caption | Pinto in 2009 |
| Birthdate | October 18, 1984 |
| Height | |
| Occupation | Actress, Model |
| Birthplace | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Yearsactive | 2006–present |
Pinto co-starred in Woody Allen's comedy-drama film You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, with Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Anupam Kher and Naomi Watts, which premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Pinto is due to appear in the 2011 science fiction film Rise of the Apes, the prequel to the Planet of the Apes (2001), opposite James Franco. She will portray the role of Caroline, a primatologist, who studies primates in the film. She will also appear in the 2011 fantasy-action-drama film, Immortals, in which she will play the role of the oracle priestess Phaedra.
Pinto is trained in different forms of Indian classical dance as well as Salsa. She currently resides in the Orlem locality of the Malad suburb of Mumbai.
Category:1984 births Category:Indian female models Category:Indian film actors Category:Indian Roman Catholics Category:Living people Category:People from Mumbai Category:Mangaloreans Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
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| Name | Dev Patel |
|---|---|
| Caption | Dev Patel in 2008 |
| Birth date | April 23, 1990 |
| Birth place | Harrow, Greater London, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 2006–present |
Dev Patel (Gujarati: દેવ પટેલ; born 23 April 1990) is a British film and television actor. He is known for his performances as Anwar Kharral in the UK television teen drama series Skins and, on a more global scale, as the main male lead Jamal Malik in Danny Boyle's critically acclaimed and multiple Academy Award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008), for which Patel won a number of awards, including a Critics' Choice Award His parents both emigrated from Kenya separately in their teens, and only met in London. He was raised in the Hindu faith.
Patel grew up in Rayners Lane, Harrow, and attended Longfield Middle School. He had his first acting role as Sir Andrew Aguecheek in the school's production of Twelfth Night. His dramateacher Niamh Wright has stated: "Dev was a gifted student who quickly impressed me with his innate ability to communicate a wide variety of characters imaginatively and creatively. ... He was awarded full marks for his GCSE performance to a live audience and the visiting examiner was moved to tears by his honest portrayal of a child in the Beslan school hostage crisis in Russia." He eventually completed his AS Levels in PE, Biology, History and Drama in 2007, while he was working in Skins. The World Championships took place in October 2004, when he was a red belt competing in the junior division against other red and black belts. He made it to the semi-finals, where he lost to an Irish black belt named Niall Fitzmaurice in "a very close and tough fight", and ended up winning a bronze medal. He later gained a 1st dan black belt on 11 March 2006.
Patel began his acting career in late 2006, when he auditioned for the E4 teen drama television series Skins. Patel's mother saw the casting ad in a newspaper and took him to the audition even though he had a science exam the next day. Patel, who had no professional acting experience, said that on "the first day of shooting I didn't really know what to do." Patel reprised his role as Anwar for the second series of Skins, which aired in February 2008. The second series of Skins won the Philips Audience Award at the 2009 BAFTA Television Awards in April 2009. In 2010 it was released that he would star in the skins movie showing in summer 2011.
After the release of Slumdog Millionaire at the end of 2008, Patel went on to receive a number of awards for his performance, including a British Independent Film Award, National Board of Review (NBR) Award, Chicago Film Critics Association Award, and two Black Reel Awards for Best Actor and Best Breakthrough Performance. Patel was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2009 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards. The award eventually went posthumously to Heath Ledger for his performance in The Dark Knight, though Patel did win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, which he shared with ten other cast members from Slumdog Millionaire. On 8 January 2009, Patel won the Critics' Choice Award for Best Young Performer. He was also nominated for two London Critics Circle Film Awards, the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor, the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Leading Actor, and European Film Award for Best Actor.
Category:1990 births Category:British actors of South Asian descent Category:British taekwondo practitioners Category:English film actors Category:English Hindus Category:English people of Indian descent Category:English television actors Category:Living people Category:Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners Category:People from Harrow
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