Danny Boyle's "127 Hours" starring James Franco is quickly becoming one of the more anticipated films of the fall season.  The true story of Aron Ralston, the film is a challenging follow up to "Slumdog Millionaire" for Boyle as a good chunk of Franco's screentime is spent stuck in a desert canyon.  One of the most visual inventive filmmakers of his era, Boyle has provided some quick and energetic answers to that quandary in a brand new teaser for the film you can watch embedded here.

"127 Hours" will screen at both the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival before opening in the U.S> on Nov. 5.  Very intriguing indeed.


In other news, the no-so dead AFI Fest is returning to bring a touch of class to the awards scene in November and has announced that David Lynch will be the film festival's guest artistic director.  Lynch also designed this year's imaginative official image (see below) and in a release noted, "“I said yes to being the Guest Artistic Director of AFI FEST 2010 because I love the AFI.  AFI can do for others what it did for me.  AFI gave me an opportunity and money to make a short film, 'The Grandmother,' and my first feature film, 'Eraserhead.'  AFI put me on the map.”  

AFI runs from Nov. 4-11 and will again find its home at the convergence of Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Mann Chinese 6 and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.  Unfortunately, the festival is continuing last year's policy of allowing free tickets to the public.  This lead to slew of patrons much more interested in celebrity watching than what was on screen.  Good times.