News

Danny Boyle is headed to the small screen. The "127 Hours" filmmaker is set to direct the pilot for "Babylon," a comedy drama commissioned by the U.K.'s Channel 4.  The Guardian reports that the pilot "is set in the world of modern policing." The pilot will be written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, the co-creators of "Peep Show" and the writers of Chris Morris' suicide bomber comedy "Four Lions." While film directors from David Fincher to Alfonso Cuarón have been dipping their toes into the world of television lately, this is far from Boyle's first TV venture. He got his start producing and directing shows like ""Inspector Morse" and "Mr. Wroe's Virgins," and directed two TV movies for the BBC in 2001 after "The Beach" -- "Vacuuming Completely Nude In Paradise" and "Strumpet." "Babylon" is slated to air next year. Boyle's most recent film was the James McAvoy...

On Saturday morning at the South by Southwest Film Festival, a special retrospective of the works of chameleonic British film director Danny Boyle was presented. Moderated by craggy New York Times reporter David Carr, who spent a copious amount of time with Boyle during the extended Oscar campaign for "Slumdog Millionaire" (and remains an avid fan), the presentation also featured Rick Smith who, as one half of electronic music duo Underworld, has been working with Boyle since his landmark "Trainspotting" in 1996 and who, most recently, provided the score for Boyle's new psychedelic mind-bender "Trance," opening in April. (We've seen the movie but are under embargo, but suffice to say the filmmaker has scored once again.) The panel started off with a stunning montage combining footage from all of Boyle's movies, including "Trance." (Boyle fanatics will notice some notable exclusions, most glaringly that there was nothing from "Vacuuming Completely Nude In Paradise,...

This year's Oscar nominees include three British directors who cut their teeth in TV. So why are American directors still so wary of the small screen?

In the history of cinema, the word "television" has traditionally been used as an insult. Directors or actors who failed to make the expected impact in Hollywood would be whisperingly dismissed as box-fodder. And, in the UK, even though broadcasters such as the BBC and Channel 4 have been a major source of movie funding since the 1980s, it remains a damaging insult for a critic to say that a cinema release has a "made for television" look.

Such attitudes, though, are increasingly challenged by the Oscar nomination lists, and especially by the British talent involved. Strikingly, graduates of two of our leading TV soap operas – EastEnders and Casualty – are packing their tuxedos for the ceremony this Sunday. Although The King's Speech will dominate...