Danny Boyle Takes Top DGA Honors for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
The director of SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE took home the top award from The Directors Guild of America - that of "Best Director" - this past weekend.
Variety.com reported on the news from the DGA; a snippet from the article is below:
"Boyle won the trophy Saturday night at the DGA Awards ceremony at the Century Plaza. The Brit helmer beat out David Fincher for 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' Ron Howard for 'Frost/Nixon,' Christopher Nolan for 'The Dark Knight' and Gus Van Sant for 'Milk' at the DGA’s 61st annual kudos.
"'If I can get here, so can you,' Boyle told the audience in a brief acceptance speech. 'Dream kind, dream hard.'
"The DGA award for director has been a reliable indicator of Oscar success, with 54 of the past 60 winners going on to take the Oscar. Joel and Ethan Coen, who presented the DGA award to Boyle, won the DGA and Oscar directing trophies last year for 'No Country for Old Men.'"
(Also, be sure to read Cinematical's "What Does Danny Boyle's DGA Win Mean for the Oscars?")
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Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy Wins Top Honors at The USC Scripter Awards
Read The LA Times for more information, and a snippet from the article is also provided below:
"The Scripter honors both the author and the screenwriter of the year's best book-to-film adaptation. This year's award went to Vikas Swarup, the author of 'Q&A,' and Simon Beaufoy, who adapted Swarup's book for the screen as 'Slumdog Millionaire.' The other four finalists were 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' 'The Reader,' 'Revolutionary Road' and 'Iron Man.'"
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SLUMDOG Star Dev Patel Visits National Public Radio
The young actor visited their studio yesterday, and the feature is now online and entitled "Living the Dream." Excerpts are below, but be sure to visit the full feature so you can listen to audio from the interview!
"Perhaps no one appreciates the rags-to-riches theme as much as Dev Patel, the 18-year-old Londoner with no formal acting training who plays the lead.
"'If you asked me a year ago would I ever have been doing a movie with [director] Danny Boyle, I would have absolutely laughed in your face,' Patel tells Liane Hansen.
"Patel describes himself as 'a very lucky kid,' with parents who supported his desire to be an actor."
Dear Sir:
I have had the oppurtunity to watch your movie "Slumdog Millionaire" a very remarkable film indeed. I am impressed with the effort put into making of the movie. The characterisation, theme and setting of the movie is truly unique. However, I was wondering that the centre stage of the story is the programme "Who wants to be a Millionaire," which we all know is not telecast live. Yet the entire movie and especially the end of the movie hinges on the idea of the live telecast of the program. In my humble opinion it would have been more appropriate if the story had a basic setting more akin to reality. I mean for a genius like you and your team it would not have been difficult to think of an alternative plot of the film. In fact the movie could have been more akin to reality if the element of live telecast of the program had not been there in the movie.
Looking forward to any reply
salinaj2005@yahoo.com