Update from 2014 from SunshineDNA blogger Gia Milinovich–
I spent 2 years working on the SunshineDNA blog, from the 15th of August 2005 until the 26 of August 2007 at 17:08 when I posted the final post on the blog (here it is on Archive.org. I will hopefully get it up here- with photos and video included!- eventually.).
Sometime in 2009, Fox Searchlight decided to delete the blog without warning. It had been hosted on their servers and they decided that it was, I don’t know, taking up too much room or something. Hmmmm. I admit it was a bit upsetting. I’d run myself into the ground working close to 24/7 on this blog and *just like that* all trace of it was gone.
I recently asked Andrew Macdonald if he minded if I try and get it all back up again. He thought it was a good idea. I’m not sure if I have every post from the site at all and, frankly, many of them don’t need to go back up again, but I will get as many up again published on their original date as possible. One thing that is VERY exciting is the fact that I’m probably the only person in the world with such a wide range of photos and video from Sunshine. I’ve got an external harddrive BURSTING with the stuff. I’m hoping to get all of those up soon, too.
Anyway, have a look around. The Archive page might be a good place to start. Thanks for reading!
-Gia
Original “About The Blog” from 2005–
I started blogging after I interviewed one of my favourite geek authors Douglas Rushkoff who said blogging was going to change the world. My current, personal blog has been going for over three years and now I have been lucky enough to land the entirely enviable job of working on the website for ‘…Sunshine…’. As a film fan, a sci-fi fan and a Danny Boyle fan, this is a dream come true. As a blogger, I have the most amazingly interesting stuff to write about. I have total access to the film makers and the cast. I can walk into Producer Andrew Macdonald’s office for a chat, call Scriptwriter Alex Garland on the phone, I’ve got as much time with Director Danny Boyle as pretty much anyone else on the production does- which, in fact, is virtually none at all. But I can go wherever I want, see whatever I want, talk to whomever I want… I can’t, however, write whatever I want.
There are several things about Sunshine that I am unable to even talk about with anyone let alone write about here. There is at least one forbidden thing on every single set so it’s hard to shoot video without getting one of them in shot.
Then there are the actors. Or, more likely, their agents. Every photo of every actor has to be approved before it can be put on the site. So please don’t beg for me to take a snap of Chris Evans or Rose Byrne or, in fact, anyone else and post it up. I just can’t. When I can, I will…
Then there are…well, there’s everyone else. Alex Garland refuses to have a photo taken or even write a meaty biog let alone have a chat on camera (which I take as a challenge to ‘get him’). Danny occasionally doesn’t let anyone with a stills or video camera on set- sometimes it’s too cramped, sometimes it’s a heavy scene, sometimes he just doesn’t want any distractions for himself or his actors. Andrew Macdonald is usually available, but, I mean, let’s be honest, you guys really want to hear about the actors or the director rather than the producer, right? No matter how lovely Andrew might be, he’s not Cillian Murphy. ;)
Then there are ‘legal’ and ‘publicity’ and all this other ‘film stuff’. Far be it for me to try and change the way Hollywood works, but following all the rules on a film set is just not conducive to keeping up a proper blog. Still, I’m going to get you real information, real conversations. You will not get the stuff written by publicists, you might *gasp* see an actor with a hair out of place, you will see what really goes on during the making of a film, you will see arguments and mistakes and, if you are really, really lucky, you will get to see Alex Garland on camera.
I won’t break any of the rules and show you things from the film that are totally forbidden– they are just so cool that doing so would really spoil everyone’s movie-going experience, besides I’d lose my job– but I will push it as far as I can. Sometimes I might put a photo up and then get an email from Alex Garland telling me he’d really like me to take it down. Sometimes the head of a particular department might give me something to put up and then Andrew Macdonald might decide later that it should be taken down. Only the most frequent visitors will get to see those things.
I hope you enjoy the blog and feel free to send me requests as long as it doesn’t involve taking photographs of the actors. I will be putting up approved photos the very first moment I can. Promise.
– Gia