Two decades after British filmmaker Danny Boyle resurrected the then-ailing zombie genre with his post-apocalyptic rage-virus movie (technically, not zombies, but close enough), the long-belated sequel to “28 Days Later” is finally taking shape. Titled “28 Years Later,” and reuniting Boyle with his original screenwriter Alex Garland, late yesterday, the main cast was revealed.
Deadline reports that Jodie Comer (“Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (“Bullet Train”), and Ralph Fiennes (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”) have all joined the cast. Sony Pictures is behind the new “28 Days Later” franchise, and it’s said to either be a new trilogy or at least a two-part film (reports have varied thus far).
Boyle will direct part one, and Nia DaCosta of “The Marvels” and “Candyman” fame has been pegged to direct part two. Coming off his political thriller, “Civil War,” Alex Garland has said that he would take a break from directing films for the foreseeable future, and part of that is he’s expected to write both films and potentially map out a third for a trilogy.
Plot details are vague. The original film starred Cillian Murphy as a bike courier who gets into an accident, falls into a coma, and wakes up 28 days later to discover London has been overrun with zombie-like humans who have been infected with a dangerous rage virus. It’s unclear if Murphy, an executive producer on the thriller, will appear in the film, but he teased a possible appearance earlier this year saying, cryptically, but hopefully, “Watch this space.” The film grossed $82 million worldwide from a relatively small and shoestring budget.
“28 Week Later” followed five years later in 2007; though Garland is not credited with writing the script, Boyle didn’t direct it, and the picture was seen as something of a commercial and critical letdown.
Over the last 15 years, Garland and Boyle have been discussing a third “28 Years Later” film, suggesting the idea was very different, but have only gotten around to this third film now.
In a recent interview with the Reel Blend podcast, Garland teased a little bit about the film and said, “Time…would be partly what the film is about. It has to do with the passage of time and thinking about what effect the passage of time would have. And is it what you would traditionally call a post-apocalyptic state, or has something else begun to manifest?”
No other details at this time, but the film is apparently gearing up for a shoot later this year and presumably a TBD 2025 release.