There’s little doubt that a Best Director Oscar can do wonders for your career. With Danny Boyle one of the hottest directors around thanks to Slumdob Millionaire, he’s just just a three year production deal with Fox Searchlight and Pathe.
You can understand why Boyle might like Fox Searchlight, as originally US distribution of Slumdog was going to be handled by Warner Independent Pictures, but when that unit was shutdown, the company considered sending the film straight-to-DVD (and out of Oscar contention). However, Fox Searchlight stepped in and marketed it strongly, turning the film into a phenomenon.
Seeing as Boyle only averages one movie every two years, we may not see too many movies made under this deal, however it does appear he wants to produce more movies that he doesn’t direct, and those would be included.
At the moment it looks like Boyle’s next film may be the Mumbai set Maximum City, although there’s a chance he’ll just produce this and instead work on a movie about Aron Ralston, who in 2003 was climbing a mountain and has to self-amputate part of his arm after it got trapped under a boulder. Ouch.