Danny Boyle’s Beatles musical/romantic comedy “Yesterday,” an exuberant movie about preserving joy in the world through lost music (read our review) is in theaters now. Boyle is doing the press round for the film, and after a vibrant and eclectic career spanning three decades, questions are naturally coming up about some of his classic movies and the mooted sequels to some that haven’t yet occurred. One is the raw and visceral contagion outbreak movie “28 Days Later,” which people forget revitalized the then-dead-under-ground zombie genre at the time. The less successful, “28 Weeks Later” followed and a “28 Months Later” film was once promised, but it’s been 12 years since the sequel.
Recently, Boyle was asked about “28 Months Later,” which sparked reports of the zombie movie coming back to life and then he had to backpedal a little and manage expectations. In a lengthy interview which we’ll run next week, Boyle told us all about the state of any “28 Days Later” sequel and the real answer appears to be that some of the decisions to move forward depend on the screenwriter and conceptualist of the original movie Alex Garland. The problem from there is that Garland has launched his own career as a successful writer/director and isn’t necessarily interested in moving backward. And Boyle, who seems very respectful of his collaborator, doesn’t really want to make the movie without his involvement.
“I could go along and make the thing, and I’d be happy to in one respect,” Boyle said of directing the sequel, “ but [Garland] wants to direct his own stuff which is terrific.”
In fact, it appears there’s no screenplay for the sequel, and all that exists is a concept that everyone seems to love. “Somebody asked about a ‘28 Days Later’ [sequel], and there’s a synopsis [Gardland’s] done which I thought was really good, and the more I thought about it the more I thought, that is really good,” he said. “What’s unique about [Garland] is that he fits inside a genre, and yet he pushes it forward in some way. Just naturally, he cannot help himself but do that.”
The issue, however, is time and distractions as Garland is creating and writing/directing his own movies and time-consuming TV series (“Devs“).
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“The problem is getting him to write them now because obviously, what he’s concentrating on, he’s writing what he wants to direct, but it’s like asking someone to drop out of directing and just write for a bit because I don’t think he’d want to direct ‘28 Days Later 3,’” Boyle explained. ”We might have to work hard to get him to write it, unless he wanted a break from directing process, so maybe. I don’t know. I’ll talk to him when I get back. He’s a terrific writer to work with, very stimulating, very exciting.”
In an interview with Garland we conducted around the time of “Ex Machina,” Garland suggested that he and Danny Boyle had fallen out and that he wouldn’t work with the director anymore. Boyle admitted as much, but it sounds like they’ve patched things—he told us they visit each others editing bays now and show each other cuts of their films—up, so there’s hope for the sequel.
“We fell out a bit on ‘Sunshine,’ we had different opinions about it, and space and outer space does that to you because it’s a big question and there are lots of different mindsets about it,” Boyle conceded. “And then he went off and made a couple of films. He wasn’t very happy with the way that [our collaborations] were made, so he decided to have a go himself, and he’s obviously been much more fulfilled since then which is just a good thing. So we’ll see! I’m going to see him in a couple of weeks I hope.”
Could they co-direct it we asked? Boyle said that he almost co-directed something else with another filmmaker (he declined to say who), but it doesn’t sound like that idea could work either. “I don’t think there’s that natural division in the synopsis that he drew up, and I don’t know whether [Garland would] want to do that, he probably wouldn’t,” he conceded. “I think the main thing would be to entice him to take a break from directing and screenwriter.
Boyle noted that Garland just finished writing and directing an entire TV series (“Devs”), could be exhausted and just might be done with the whole thing. “He may have moved on; he may not want to do that idea anymore. He’s his own man, you know.”
Lastly, on the prospect of Cillian Murphy and Naomi Harris returning to close the loop on the series? Probably not. “Oh, I don’t know. They’re two fine actors, [but], I suspect it would be a fresh start, but that’s just my reaction to the synopsis really.”
The short, tldr answer: A “28 Days Later” trilogy closer could come one day, but it doesn’t sound it’s going to happen anytime soon. Boyle could get his answer, on whether Garland is even interested in moving forward with the idea, soon. Much more from this interview and about Boyle’s “Yesterday,” next week.
– Additional reporting by Griffin Schiller.
