Movie '127 Hours' will have no dialogue for one hour

By Sarah Sluis

In a flash of genius, I thought I had finally figured out how they are going to make a movie about the guy that was trapped under a boulder for five days and survived by cutting off his arm. Flashbacks. Slumdog Millionaire-style flashbacks.

Those of you who have seen that Oscar-winning smash Slumdog Millionaire last year may remember that the entire story is composed of flashbacks motivated by a police interrogation with the young male protagonist. Detained by inspectors after winning "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?," he summons a different memory with each question they ask. The screenwriters, Simon Beaufoy and Danny Boyle (the latter directing), will reprise these roles for their new movie, entitled 127 Hours. And flashbacks seem like a perfect strategy to dramatize a man who is literally trapped in one place for five days.

But it appears Beaufoy and Boyle are going in a different direction. There is apparently no dialogue for the first hour. Like Cast Away, without the volleyball. What!?

Well, if there's one person who can pull it off, it would have to be James Franco, who was just announced as the lead today. First off, he looks similar to Aron Ralston, the mountaineer who inspired the story. The actor has spent some time at Columbia and guest starring on "General Hospital," (which he called a "performance art" experiment), an unusual combination that gives him an aura of intellectualism which could work for such a role. Fear not, it will probably hit theatres later this year, with production starting in March.