Is Nia DaCosta headed back to the horror genre? Deadline reports that the “Candyman” director is in talks with Sony Pictures to direct the second film in the upcoming “28 Years Later” trilogy. If DaCosta does signs on, she’ll shoot her installment immediately after Danny Boyle wraps the first one later this year.
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And that means Sony, Boyle, and writer Alex Garland are working fast to make this new trilogy a reality. “28 Years Later” only became official in February after murmurs about it last summer. Now, it’s a full-fledged trilogy, with Cillian Murphy possibly coming back to star. Murphy is at last back to produce Boyle’s film, and he’ll be an executive producer on DaCosta’s. Boyle and Garland will lead producers on DaCosta’s film with Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice.
There’s no plot details for “28 Years Later” yet, but if Boyle and DaCosta shoot back-to-back, Boyle and Garland have a clear vision about where they’re taking the zombie franchise. And if both films get shot later this year, expect a cast announcement soon. Of course, there’s always a chance that DaCosta’s film veers in a different direction than Boyle’s, similar to how “28 Weeks Later” features different characters than “28 Days Later.” But then again, this is the zombie genre: it’s about survivors escaping from running hordes of the undead; story is secondary (and Boyle’s 2002 original basically condensed George A. Romero‘s original “Dead” trilogy to one 90-minute film).
But back to DaCosta. If the director signs on for the zombie pic, it’ll be her second upcoming film afer “Hedda,” her Henrik Ibsen adaptation for MGM Orion Pictures and Plan B. DaCosta reunites with Tessa Thompson on that film; they first worked together on DaCosta’s feature debut, “Little Woods.” DaCosta is coming off of “The Marvels,” which was no disaster but leaves the director persona non grata with certain Marvel fans. Maybe a return to horror will help DaCosta pivot away from those people, but to be fair, some genre fans didn’t like her take on “Candyman” either, despite its box office success. Still, DaCosta became the first Black female filmmaker ever to open a film at the domestic box office with the 2021 film, so she has success in horror Boyle & co. would gladly capitalize on.