10/04/2007 - The "golden boy" of UK cinema looks fearlessly into the sun

Cineuropa: When you receive a screenplay such as Sunshine [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: AndrewMacdonald
interview: Danny Boyle
film profile] what kind of reaction do you have? Did you need the same kind of courage to make a science fiction film that it took for Richard Eyre’s Notes on a Scandal [+see also:
trailer
film profile]?
Andrew Mcdonald: When you get it, all you can do is feel the quality it contains. This does not happen with the majority of scripts. However, this film also gave me the opportunity to work with Danny again. A project’s quality and enthusiasm compel you to take it on, and I felt satisfied. Furthermore, my job is to put together financing to make a film and in this case it wasn’t easy given the film’s genre.

This is a 100% British film, but with very strong financial ties to the US. How did the collaboration work between your company, DNA Films, and Fox Searchlight?
The film cost over $40m and the American part was 30%. I have an agreement with Fox so they are 50% partners in terms of the investment returns. They are also handling international distribution.

This is your eighth collaboration with Boyle – spanning from Shallow Grave to 28 Days Later, which earned $80m, overtaking Trainspotting, one of the most successful UK films of all time. What will be your next project together? And whatever happened to Alien Love Triangle?
The film lasts only 26 minutes, it’s difficult to convince someone to pay to see it. The Weinstein brothers commissioned it as a film in three episodes [the other directors involved were William Forsyth and Kevin Smith] and we were the only ones who delivered our episode. With Boyle as executive producer we’re working on 28 Weeks Later, a sequel to the 2002 horror film but directed by Spanish filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. The film will be released in May.