Despite early reports that Amber Tamblyn was set to play the girlfriend-turned-partner of real life survival hero Aron Ralston in Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours,” Clémence Poésy (‘Harry Potter,’ “In Bruges”) has now been revealed as the actress portraying that role.
The thespian joins the retelling of Ralston’s infamous self-amputation tale in the Utah mountains which began shooting on location in March with James Franco in the lead role along with Tamblyn and Kate Mara as fellow hikers Ralston meets before his ordeal. We had assumed one of those hikers would eventually become Ralston’s girlfriend on account of reports that pegged Tamblyn as his girlfriend and the hiker, however that has now been debunked with the confirmed casting of Poésy.
The film also features work from two cinematographers in Anthony Dod Mantle and Enrique Chediak and will predominantly follow Ralston through first-person POV dialogue, a narrative tool that should provide for a harrowing, claustrophobic cinematic experience. Here’s the official Fox synopsis:
127 HOURS is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston’s (James Franco) remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah. Over the next five days Ralston examines his life and survives the elements to finally discover he has the courage and the wherewithal to extricate himself by any means necessary, scale a 65 foot wall and hike over eight miles before he is finally rescued. Throughout his journey, Ralston recalls friends, lovers (Clemence Poesy), family, and the two hikers (Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara) he met before his accident. Will they be the last two people he ever had the chance to meet? A visceral thrilling story that will take an audience on a never before experienced journey and prove what we can do when we choose life.
The film will hopefully hit by year’s end and may very well take the Telluride-Toronto route that proved so successful for Boyle and Fox Searchlight with “Slumdog Millionaire” in 2008. We can’t wait.
Update: information regarding test screening footage has been removed at the request of Fox Searchlight.