The biggest constant in Danny Boyle’s career is change.  The 54-year-old director left a successful run in British theater and television to tackle a striking range of genres on film: horror, romantic comedy, family drama, thriller, dark comedy, among others.  This weekend’s limited release of his real-life man vs. nature film, 127 Hours, marked the first time Boyle has let one actor fully drive a film.  The venture paid off with a lead performance from James Franco that is getting rave reviews and the lion’s share of early buzz for the upcoming awards season.

This will also be the Oscar winner’s last directorial effort on film for some time.  Boyle is the artistic director of the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony and will smooth that transition from film to live events with a return to theater as the director of a new adaptation of Frankenstein at the Royal National Theatre in England.  He recently gave Collider a host of new details on the play, how 127 Hours was inspired by Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, revelations about his real-life subject Aron Ralston and why Slumdog Millionaire is far from his last production in India.  Hit the jump for the full audio and transcription.

For his new drama-thriller, 127 Hours, director Danny Boyle re-teams with innovative Indian film composer A.R. Rahman who won two Academy Awards for his work on Slumdog Millionaire. Rahman has created an awesome score to convey the 127-hour ordeal of American mountaineer Aron Ralston when his arm is pinned by a boulder deep inside a Utah canyon and he must resort to desperate measures in order to survive.

We sat down for a round table interview with Rahman to talk about his new film. He told us about his collaboration with Danny Boyle, why he chose a personal and intimate score with Western influences to help bring to life the director’s unique vision, and how much he enjoyed once again being part of the Oscar-winning team behind Slumdog Millionaire. Rahman also liked our suggestion that he consider working with Ryan Murphy on a Bollywood version of Glee.  Hit the jump to read what he had to say:

Academy Award winning director Danny Boyle’s new film, 127 Hours, is a gripping account of mountain climber Aron Ralston’s harrowing ordeal after he becomes pinned under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and must take desperate measures in order to survive. The film, co-written by Boyle and Simon Beaufoy, who won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire, is inspired by Ralston’s memoir, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” and features a compelling, Oscar worthy performance by James Franco.

We sat down recently with Simon at a roundtable interview to talk about his collaboration with Danny Boyle. He told us how they set about finding the cinematic potential of a story involving one location and one actor and mined the anti-superhero aspects to reveal the spiritual journey Aron embarks on when he is pushed to the limits of human endurance. Simon also updated us on his upcoming film, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, directed by Lasse Halstrom from his screenplay.

China earned raves for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics as assembled by director Zhang Yimou (Hero).  So when London nabbed the 2012 games, it makes sense they would recruit a homegrown filmmaker privy to international acclaim, Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle, for the same task.

Nothing is finalized yet, but the folks in human resources think Boyle is just the man to direct the kickoff event for a live audience of 80,000 and an international television audience of, you know, billions.  More after the jump: