'127 Hours' Director Danny Boyle Used Two DPs to Capture Harrowing Drama

12:33 PM PST 2/8/2011 by Tom Roston

Story of a man alone in the wilderness a challenge for screenwriters: Even though the main character is stuck, the narrative could not stand still.

For a few months in late 2010, Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours, the true-life survival story of hiker Aron Ralston, was in the news for all the wrong reasons. Stories of audience members becoming physically ill during early screenings of the critically acclaimed film have been well documented — how the scene of Ralston (James Franco) freeing himself from the five-day grip of an 800-pound boulder by amputating his own arm was a little too real, causing some to faint and others to vomit — and it could be argued that the $16 million film, which has earned $11.3 million at the box office to date, has suffered because of it.