Following Slumdog, the director says he found himself inundated with offers of work. Yet he was determined not to react to Slumdog’s success, since it would have been foolish. Having already decided in 2006 to bring Ralston’s story to the big screen, Boyle decided to use the power Slumdog gave him to finance the project.

It also helped Boyle convince Aron Ralston (on whose real life story the film is based) to lend his story for a dramatized film. The explorer had been keen to make a documentary, in which he appeared as himself. Yet Boyle was adamant this would not have worked. He said, "I told Aron that if we employed him as the actor, it would be terrible. No one would have believed it. My point was we would achieve so much more with a proper actor.”

After watching the film, Ralston told the BBC World Service, “He was right, it was a much more powerful and inspiring film for people to see and experience."