'Slum Dog Millionaire' as told on April 2007

Danny Boyle tackles 'Slum Dog Millionaire'
Exclusive: The 'Sunshine' helmer tells us all about his next project.
Apr 5 2007

I spoke to the always affable Danny Boyle yesterday for our 'Sunshine' podcast, and when the subject turned to his next film, it seems I had my facts wrong. Rather than making South African-set thriller 'Ponte Tower' (as previously reported), Boyle is about to start work on a very different sort of film, as he himself explained.

'It's called 'Slum Dog Millionaire', it's based on a true story, and it's about a kid from the slums of Mumbai, who has nothing – he's ill educated, he's illiterate – and he goes on the Hindi version of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' and wins it. And they can't believe that he's done it. They think he's cheated. They think he's getting signals from embedded chips in his body, or that there are people coughing in the audience, but he won it.

'What's clever about the film is that the structure shows you how he knows the answers. Certain things have happened to him in his life and they happen to ask questions about those things. But the real reason he's on the show is to get in touch with the girl he loves but has lost in the chaos of Mumbai, and all he knows is that she watches the show religiously. So he's not even there to win the money, but that's when you win I suppose, when you're not even trying.'

Simon Beaufoy ('The Full Monty') has written the script, with filming set to start on location in Mumbai soon. And as for 'Ponte Tower', that film is still very much on Boyle's horizon, with Michael Thomas currently working on the script.