ASPEN — Former Aspenite Aron Ralston has taken his time getting his story to the big screen. And now it looks as though that wait might pay off.
The entertainment-trade magazine Variety has reported that British filmmaker Danny Boyle — who earned a Best Director Academy Award earlier this year for “Slumdog Millionaire” — is set to make a movie of Ralston's tale of survival. According to the article, the film will be titled “127 Hours,” and is scheduled for release late next year.
Ralston became international news in May 2003, when he amputated his own arm to free himself from a boulder that had pinned him down while hiking in Utah's Blue John Canyon. An ambitious rock climber and mountaineer, Ralston spent five days immobile in the remote canyon before using a small knife to cut off the lower part of his right arm.
Ralston's adventure has been told several times in public. He appeared on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” and was featured in a two-hour episode of “Dateline NBC” that was titled “Desperate Days in Blue John Canyon.” Ralston documented the experience in a book, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” that was published in 2004.
Ralston did not return messages Friday from The Aspen Times.
Besides “Slumdog Millionaire,” which earned a total of eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Boyle's films include “Trainspotting,” “28 Days Later” and “Millionaire.”