Danny Boyle (“Yesterday”) and Alex Garland (“Civil War”) are getting the band back together as Garland is looking to make his grand return to screenwriting for other filmmakers by launching a new trilogy set within the universe of their previous film “28 Days Later.” The first installment, “28 Years Later,” landed at Sony Pictures with a cast that currently consists of Aaron Taylor-Johnson (“Bullet Train,” “The Fall Guy”), Jodie Comer (“The Bikeriders,” “Free Guy”), and Ralph Fiennes (“No Time To Die”).
The Ronin can confirm that cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (“Dredd”), who previously worked with Boyle on ’28 Days Later,” “Trance,””Slumdog Millionaire,” “Millions,” ‘T2: Trainspotting 2,” and “127 Hours” has joined the crew of the upcoming sequel. Most recently, Mantle and Boyle collaborated on the Sex Pistols series, “Pistol.”
What originally kicked off the rage virus being unleashed into the population was when an infected chimp gets released by well-intentioned animal rights activists, only for the chimp to bite them as they turn into the mindless killers that spread across the globe. Not traditional zombies, as the rage virus horde can run which influenced a heap of horror films. “28 Weeks Later” alludes to France/Europe also being overrun with rage hordes by the end of the film, as the main gist of the sequel was that the US military trying to repopulate the country slowly before that goes south too.
It’s still unclear what the actual plot of the film will be. However, there is an expectation that two more installments are also in the works, with trade reports claiming that Nia DaCosta (“Candyman,” “The Marvels”) is in talks to direct the second movie in the trilogy. Characters played by recent Best Actor Oscar winner Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”) and Naomie Harris (“No Time To Die”) have survived the events of the original, but it remains to be seen if either will reprise their respective roles. Murphy attaching himself as a producer could signal his eventual return to the franchise.
For Boyle, this will be one of his biggest recent films after bowing out to helm the last James Bond movie over scheduling/creative differences. There is an expectation that production designer Mark Tildesley (“No Time To Die,” “Sunshine”) will be a department head and also previously worked on the original pic.
“28 Years Later” will shoot primarily in the United Kingdom, and Sony is handling the global distribution, although. we’re still waiting on an official release date from the studio.
THE RONIN 