Danny Boyle has opened up about his love of Manchester and whether he would make a biopic about Prime Minister Andy Burnham. The directing legend, who hails from Radcliffe, was back in Manchester on Friday night (October 16) for the city's premiere of his 15th film, Ink.
Set to hit the big screen on January 8, 2017, it stars Sinners' Jack O'Connell, The Brutalist's Guy Pearce and The Crown's Claire Foy. Beginning in 1969, the fast-paced drama reveals what happened when media tycoon Rupert Murdoch (Pearce) acquired The Sun, and made Larry Lamb (O'Connell) his editor. It isn't long until Lamb turns the paper into a sensationalist tabloid that transformed modern media.
Return to HOME Manchester
Oscar-winning director Boyle, who has also made classics such as 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire and Sunshine, was all smiles as he returned to HOME Manchester for the BFI London Film Festival's first Screen Talk held outside London to discuss his wide-ranging career that has placed him among the most successful British filmmakers.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News about the prestigious festival coming up north, Boyle said: "It's a lovely initiative, rather than everything being in London that there's a chance to open it up to other cities in the UK.
"I hope they will do that in places other than just Manchester. Manchester has got a real profile now, we've got a bloody Prime Minister. That's good and proper, other cities need that as well.
"Why should people have to travel to London, it's expensive, difficult and inconvenient for their lives. Yet they want to have access to the stuff everyone gets in London all the time."
Working in the North West
He added: "I made a big series here at the start of my career, Mr. Wroe's Virgins, and I made a beautiful film I'm very proud of, one of my favourites out of all the films I've made, Millions. We made that in Liverpool, Manchester and Widnes.
"I love working here if I can. It depends on so many factors like the story, all the technicalities of the crew, availability of actors and all that kind of stuff. I'd come back in a heartbeat."
Saying that he 'used to read the Manchester Evening News all the time', Boyle shined a light on how working on Ink made him think back to his relationship with newspapers over the years.
"We worked at a print centre in Watford, which has since closed. They were working for a lot less than capacity. It shows you what's happening as we consume more and more on these platforms [holds phone]. Print becomes less and less interesting.
"A lot of the young people that we worked with on the film, they knew what the newspaper was but they had no relationship with it as a tactile thing you hold that gets your fingers dirty. They didn't know anything about that," he said.
Newspapers and social identity
Looking back to the past, Boyle continued: "What was interesting about it, I used to travel on the bus or tube and everyone would have their newspaper. It was like your social identity. It said a bit about who you were.
"We thought those times were polarising, but now it's much more polarised because people are siloed through their own screen and platform. The algorithm learns what you like and gives it back to you as if it was independent. It's not, it's just reflecting back to you what you like.
"You tend to get your feelings and ideas reinforced rather than opened up or challenged. When you used to sit on the bus with people it was the opposite, you could read headlines of papers you might not approve of. It's a shame that we don't share more."
Andy Burnham biopic possibility
One person who wasn't at the screening was the Prime Minister, who Boyle had invited earlier in the week, due to his busy schedule. When asked if he'd make a film about Burnham similar to 2015's Steve Jobs, Boyle didn't rule it out.
"Oh my god, it's hard for me because he's an Everton fan. It would be tough going to the Hill Dickinson. They've kept Goodison for the women's games, so that's good. That's still available to film in. You'd be able to do the crowd scenes with him there," he teased.
Ink comes out in the UK on January 8, 2027.
