Danny Boyle already directed 28 Days Later, but now he's giving himself a shorter time-frame in 127 Hours, the squirm-inducing true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston, some do-it-yourself amputation and one-armed cliff-scaling. Please excuse us a minute while we shudder.
Yes, if you were wigged out by Touching the Void, then this is one to thoroughly avoid. Ralston was climbing in Utah in 2003 when a boulder dislodged itself and pinned his lower right arm. He was stuck there for five days, during which time he finished all his water, started drinking his own urine and prepared to meet his maker.
Half-delirious and with the arm already dead, he realised he could get free if he lost it. So he broke his own bones and sawed it off with a tool he describes as "what you'd get if you bought a $15 flashlight and got a free multi-use tool" (go ahead and wince). Then he still had to rappel down the cliff and get out of the canyon in the hot midday sun.
He still goes mountain climbing, but we like to think that these days he gives everyone a copy of his itinerary before he goes.
Boyle has written a treatment of the story himself, which his Slumdog Millionaire writer Simon Beaufoy is in talks to turn into a full script. Slumdog producer Christian Colson is producing, making this something of a family reunion.
There's no word yet on who'll play Ralston, but given that he's on his own for most of the film without so much as a friend made out of a volleyball for company, they're going to need a pretty good actor. Suggestions please below.