Yes, you’re fucking dead sick of hearing about “Slumdog Millionaire,” but whether you like it or not, the fact remains: Its story is definitively the Cinderella tale of the year. It almost didn’t happen… many times over.
“Slumdog Millionaire” is the winner of 4 Golden Globes, 7 Baftas, 5 Critic’s Choice Awards, and was named the best film of the year by The National Board of Review. The Danny Boyle-directed fairy tale is also the winner of every film Guild award this year including the producers, the directors, the writers, the actors (ensemble award), the editors, the cinematographers, the art directors and the sound mixers. “Slumdog Millionaire” ended up with a final
94% rating on rottentomaotes, and is currently rated 8.6
on IMDB. Finally, “Slumdog Millionaire” is on the cusp of sweeping the Academy Awards with a total of 10 nominations, and yet at one point it was almost headed straight to DVD! How did the film accomplish all of this? Well, almost every step along the way, good fortune followed. You could almost say the film was blessed with very unexpected fates.
The Luck: In early 2007, the ever eclectic filmmaker, Danny Boyle, was given the chance to read a script based on a book called “Q and A” about the Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” The director initially brushed it off on concept alone, as he wasn’t interested in making a movie about a popular game show (we seriously can’t blame him). He only returned to it after finding out the script, titled “Slumdog Millionaire,” was written by Simon Beaufoy, who previously wrote “The Full Monty,” which turns out is one of Boyle’s favorite British films. Boyle loved the script and committed to the project, thus creating the first of many second chances this film would see.
The Hard Work: The projected budget for the film was an estimated $15 million dollars. Chump change to the big Hollywood studios, but a big deal to Celador Films, the company that owned the script. So they sought a distributor to share the costs, and got Fox Searchlight Pictures to make an initial $2 million dollar offer.
However, Warner Independent Pictures counter-offered with a reported $5 million dollar bid that Fox could not top. The cast and crew fell into place with Loveleen Tandan on board as one of the five casting directors. It was she who suggested they do some of the dialogue in Hindi to make the film “come alive,” which led Boyle to ask her to do the translations. As time drew closer to the shoot date, Boyle invited Tandan to co-direct with him, serving as a needed bridge between cultures.
The Irony: However, Once the film was completed, the ultimate bad luck struck: Like many mini-major indies last year,
Warner Independent Pictures went under and the film was thrown into limbo. WIP was absorbed by the bigger Warner Brothers proper, who suddenly doubted the commercial prospects of a film about Indian children growing up in the slums of Mumbai, and at one point ‘Slumdog’ was in
serious peril of being dumped straight to DVD. That’s when in August of 2008 —
overload by the number of films they had at the time — Warners attempted to sell off the film they were now only vaguely interested in and of course, the initial interested party,
Fox Searchlight, a mini-major with a keen sense for diamonds in the rough and a great knack for indie Oscar campaigns (“Juno,” “Little Miss Sunshine”),
came a knocking. The two entered a pact to share distribution of the film, with Fox Searchlight buying a 50% stake. As of now, the film has made $130 million dollars worldwide, therefore making Searchlight’s bank some multiple million dollars richer.
The Good Will: So with the film officially getting released finally, it was now time for a strategic marketing scheme. “Slumdog Millionaire” was first shown at the Telluride Film Festival in late August, and then at the Toronto Film Fest a week later. At both places, the film received unanimous praise and even received the
People’s Choice Award at the latter. This is where Searchlight was caught off guard and went, “Oh shit! Could this film really be good enough to be an awards contender?” They then planned a rush-release of the film slated for November 12th in major cities. A mediocre poster was thrown together, and an equally shrug-worthy trailer was cut. Then the film was slapped with an R rating from the MPAA, which they now didn’t have the time to appeal for the PG-13 they wanted. Which is a shame considering the story itself. “Slumdog Millionaire” is a modern Charles Dickens tale.
Not Of Hollywood, Still At The Party: The rags to riches idea appeals to everyone. What makes it more poignant is the fact that the movie was made on a shoestring budget by Hollywood standards, featured 1/3 of it in Hindi and yet has now come into both money and acclaim, overcoming the odds like the characters in the movie itself (not to mention seemingly overcoming a huge backlash campaign).
In other words, the major Hollywood studios must be pissed! Here they’ve spent their usual millions upon millions on their so-called Oscar bait films, and it will probably all end up in vain. As one producer said, “it’s like the other films don’t exist.” And who do they have to thank for this? Well for one, the film goers themselves (not to mention Warner Bros. – Boyle cheekily “thanked” them recently too) should be thanked. “Slumdog Millionaire” opened with a platform style release system across the country, allowing word of mouth to spread and the buzz to grow – without, it would’ve faded out and quit expanding. As it stands now, the film has played in almost every major market in the U.S., instead of sitting on the shelf at Blockbuster next to “Hard Cash.” Now that’s a success story.
Conclusion: If ‘Slumdog’ does outclass the rest of Hollywood at the Oscars, it can only be considered as an embarrassment to everyone else. Especially to bloated epics like ‘Ben Button’ that spent at least $150+ million to make. It already likely signals a titanic shift in what constitutes an Oscar film and is probably a huge wake up call to Tinseltown. Not everybody loves ‘Slumdog.’ Much like your favorite band that got too big, many indie film sites have abandoned the picture and moved on to other movies. An mild indie backlash was probably inevitable. But as champions of the little guy and smaller, indie films, with no stars and no marquee value, you’d be a fool not to see its almost pre-ordained Oscar victory as win for the little guy, no matter how huge it might have become. Even if it doesn’t win a thing, the game has irrevocably changed – Jonathan Helm
