Danny Boyle's true-life mountaineering drama 127 Hours has been picked to close the 54th London Film Festival on October 13.
Two years ago Boyle delivered a suitably barnstorming finish to the Festival with Slumdog Millionaire. This time around Bury's finest swaps the chaos of Mumbai's shanties for the isolation of a Utah mountain range to tell the story of Aron Ralston (James Franco), an experienced climber who finds himself pinned to a canyon wall by a rogue bolder and left with no prospect of rescue.
His options aren't great: death or the kind of stomach-churning penknife-based amputation you won't find in any medical textbook. Something tells us this isn't going to be for the faint-hearted.
Says Boyle: "LFF played a vital role in the journey of Slumdog Millionaire and it's great to be bringing new work here and renewing a happy partnership. I can't wait to unveil the new film and I hope it provides a worthy climax to what will hopefully be two weeks of great movies for our city."
127 Hours joins Never Let Me Go as fittingly British bookends to the Festival. Mark Romanek's sci-fi gets things underway on October 13, with Boyle and Franco treading the red carpet 15 days later. Watch this space for the full programme which is announced on September 8.