He'd be forgiven for taking some time to bask in his 127 Hours Oscar nomination, but screenwriter Simon Beaufoy is already hard at work on his next project, adapting Toby Barlow's **Sharp Teeth. And he says if he makes a good job of it, Danny Boyle will direct.
Beaufoy and Boyle's collaborations so far amount to the not insignificant one-two punch of Slumdog Millionaire and the aforementioned arm/rock epic, with both also produced by Chris Colson. Is their third team-up really likely to be this Gangs of LA with werewolves, or is that a bit of cheeky spin from Beaufoy to talk up the gig?
Whatever, Sharp Teeth seems ripe for screen treatment, whoever takes it on. Barlow's young adult novel, written in verse, involves warring packs of lycanthropes coming straight outta Compton and Watts. The full moon is irrelevant; they can change at will. It is, says Beaufoy, "an extraordinary mix of a gangland Los Angeles police procedural and a werewolf film."
To that end Beaufoy has certainly been putting in the research, going out on ride-alongs with LAPD to make sure he nails the details. "It's brilliant seeing that other side of LA", he says. "When you're involved in the movie industry, you go to awards ceremonies and you get driven in a smart car from LAX to the Four Seasons, and you miss out on what ninety percent of LA is, which is lots of unemployment, and lots of really difficult social issues."
We're not sure "brilliant" is quite the appropriate word there, and Beaufoy will have to be careful to avoid that element of poverty-tourism that drew heavy fire from Slumdog's critics. Trying to mix some sort of social commentary with a story involving lots of guns and werewolves will either work as a really strong metaphor or come off as utterly insensitive. Beaufoy, thankfully, is well aware of the potential pitfalls: "If you get it wrong it's a disaster, but if you get it right, it could be extraordinary..."