Hollywood is at it again, with another instance of virtue signaling that lacks impact. Director Danny Boyle, promoting his new film “28 Years Later,” took a moment during interviews to express regret about one of his previous movies, without delivering a meaningful message.
Boyle is currently promoting “28 Years Later,” the latest installment in the zombie franchise he started in 2002. As he discusses his new project, he made some peculiar statements about his most acclaimed work. Despite gaining recognition as an independent filmmaker, Boyle rose to stardom with “Slumdog Millionaire,” a film about an underprivileged Indian teenager who becomes successful by winning a game show jackpot.
“Slumdog Millionaire” received numerous Oscar nominations and won various awards, including Best Film and Best Director for Boyle. However, now 17 years later, Boyle finds himself criticizing and apologizing for creating the very film that brought him such accolades.
“We wouldn’t be able to make that now,” Boyle said. “And that’s how it should be. It’s time to reflect on all that. We have to look at the cultural baggage we carry and the mark that we’ve left on the world. That kind of cultural appropriation might be sanctioned at certain times. But at other times it cannot be.”
This is his assessment after they made the conscious decision at the time to film on location in India and use mostly native performers and crew. It sounds like he has been absorbing his share of vocal opposition from activist mindsets, and instead of standing firm behind his film he is bending the knee – at least verbally.
It has all of the earmarks of compelled apologies, the kind made when you are accused of some neutered non-offense. He is saying enough from the compulsory checkboxes, but he is lacking in one significant fashion. Where is the announcement that he is turning in his Oscar trophy, or returning the wealth of proceeds he earned from the film? Of course, that will never take place. He just delivers the supplicant words while taking no action.
What makes this so asinine is that this kind of reductive signaling is not only unneeded but it delivers diminished results for the supposedly aggrieved groups. Boyle states firmly that his desire at the time to have the film made by Indians means it would have jeopardized the movie being made at all in the modern era. “I mean, I’m proud of the film, but you wouldn’t even contemplate doing something like that today. It wouldn’t even get financed.”
There are few movies I’m more excited for than 28 YEARS LATER. Boyle and Garland do not miss. pic.twitter.com/vwU7H13Eul
— Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) April 17, 2025
This means that a film centered on a particular group would have such restrictive casting and production requirements that the film would not be made. So instead of giving a marginalized group worldwide exposure through the product, as well as employing numerous members of said group, it would all be wiped away in the name of sensitivity.
We saw this play out in actuality. Years ago Scarlet Johansson wanted to make a film called “Run & Tug”, about a historical trans individual. The trans community was outraged that Johansson was in the lead role and not a true trans performer. In the ensuing controversy, she ducked out of the role and without her star power, the entire project had the plug pulled. As a result of trans-militants, the trans community lost a chance at having it portrayed in a positive manner in a feature film.
In the production of “Snow White” established actor Peter Dinklage complained that the dwarves were going to be portrayed in the traditional fashion. As a result, the studio buckled and made the change from casting those roles and opted for CGI representations of the famed group. This was the successful Dinklage effectively pulling up the ladder and taking work away from other smaller actors like himself.
The other issue with this kind of woke thinking is the likelihood of seeing it boomerang back onto the director. It could be glib to ask if the director was hiring actual zombies for his film, but in looking at his upcoming slate there is a legitimate concern that he has invited upon himself. He is tabbed to direct the adaptation of the stage play “Miss Saigon”, and given that it is set entirely in the country of Vietnam, all of his current criticism of “Slumdog” seems to apply.
It almost sounds as if he has not learned a lesson – from the very lecture he has delivered.
