Film enthusiasts are ecstatic because Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are returning for 28 Years Later, a sequel (or threequel) to their famous horror film 28 Days Later.
Oscar-winning director Boyle, 67, and 53-year-old Ex Machina filmmaker Garland collaborated to create and write the original horror picture, which starred Cillian Murphy and was released in 2002, more than 20 years ago.
While they did not direct or write the script for the 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later, which was directed and co-written by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, the two are scheduled to collaborate again on a new zombie thriller.
Multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that this new product, now titled 28 Years Later, will be available to studios, streamers, and other possible customers later this week.
Yes, this long-awaited notion appears to be occurring!
More intriguingly, Boyle and Garland, who were executive producers on 28 Weeks Later, which starred The Full Monty’s Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Renner, and Rose Byrne, are apparently planning a new trilogy, with each picture expected to cost approximately $75 million.
Garland appears to be writing all three, while Boyle will helm the first picture in the series, and the two will produce them.
There is no word yet on whether Oppenheimer star Murphy will be persuaded back into the fold, although he has already expressed his support for the notion.
Responding to rumbles of 28 Years Later back in July, he shared with The Independent: ‘I would be there in a flash. I made two movies with both of those guys, and I would love to work with them again. Of course, I’m there.’
Boyle had said in November 2022 that he would be ‘tempted’ to complete a 28 Days Later trilogy, and that the potential to adapt Garland’s script for a 28 Months Later feature film (which seemed the obvious title at the moment) piqued his interest.
In an interview with NME, Boyle said: ‘I’d be very tempted (to direct it). It feels like a very good time actually. It’s funny. I hadn’t thought about it until you just said it, and I remembered “Bang, this script!” which is again set in England, very much about England.’
‘Anyway, we’ll see… who knows?’ the Trainspotting and Sunshine director teased.
The original film stars Cillian Murphy as bicycle courier Jim, a man who awakens from a coma to find London desolate after a viral outbreak decimates civilization – hence the iconic scene of him wondering down a lonely Westminster Bridge.
Boyle realised it would be a hit right away.
The filmmaker recalled: ‘I instantly knew the film was something very special. I remember reading the first ten pages of (Alex Garland’s script), thinking, “This is brilliant”.
‘It was like a quarter of a page. He wanders around London on his own and you just thought, “Oh my God! What an amazing idea: a deserted London.’
He also pointed out that the pandemic had meant that that idea had since ‘come to haunt us’.
‘We complain how overcrowded (cities) are and about the stress, and then in an instant, life as we know it in many, many different forms can empty them.’
In the sequel, set six months after the rage virus infects the population of Great Britain, the US Army assists in securing a small portion of London for survivors to repopulate and start over.
However, when two young siblings violate rules to discover a portrait of their mother, the virus returns to the secure zone.
Source My Celebrity Life.