Blue John Canyon. Photo: S Mestdagh.

His last blockbuster film was the heartwarming rags-to-riches tale of a Mumbai urchin who found fame on a TV quiz.

Now, Oscar-winning Danny Boyle’s next offering will tell the remarkable story of a climber who cut off his own arm after being trapped by a fallen boulder for five days in the Utah desert. Filming on 127 Hours, the fictionalised account of Aron Ralston’s ordeal will begin next year.

Boyle will again join the team behind Slumdog Millionaire, which gained eight Academy Awards, for the production.

Mountaineer Ralston, a mechanical-engineering graduate from Carnegie Mellon University, was on a solo canyoneering trip at the site near Moab when a large boulder dislodged, trapping his right forearm and pinning it against the wall of the canyon.

He survived for five days, sipping small amounts of his water before having to resort to drinking his own urine. Close to death, he videoed a last goodbye to his relatives and carved the date into the rock.

As a last ditch attempt to survive, he snapped the bones in his arm then proceeded to amputate it with the blade and pliers in his multi-tool.

He then had to abseil off a rock face and walk the 13km (eight miles) to his vehicle. He was found by a family who gave him water and biscuits and then called rescuers who airlifted him to hospital.

National park authorities subsequently removed the arm from the canyon and cremated it. Ralston then scattered its remains at the site.

He described his ordeal in the 2004 book Between a Rock and a Hard Place. The climber has expressed an intention to climb Everest next year.