'127 hours' causing some audiences to faint

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- The forearm amputation central to the plot of the upcoming film "127 Hours" has caused some early screening audiences to faint, a studio executive said.

"I would prefer that people not pass out -- it's not a plus," Stephen Gilula, Fox Searchlight co-president, was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times Saturday. "We don't see a particular publicity value in it."

The Danny Boyle-directed movie is based on the true story of Aron Ralston, portrayed by James Franco, who contemplates his mortality and amputates his own arm after getting pinned between a boulder and a rock wall deep in a Utah ravine while hiking alone in 2003 with no one in the world knowing his whereabouts.

"I started to feel like I was going to throw up," Courtney Phelps, who saw the film at a recent Producers Guild of America screening in Hollywood, told the Times. "So I went to the bathroom, and then I started feeling dizzy and my heart started racing."

Phelps fainted and was treated by paramedics who were responding to reports of another theatergoer having a seizure.

"I have never had, even remotely, an experience like this. I'm a television producer. I know this stuff is not real," Phelps said.

Two fainting episodes were reported at the Telluride Film Festival, three at the Toronto International Film Festival and one at the Mill Valley Film Festival in recent days, the Times said.