Danny Boyle has finished shooting his horror follow-up, 28 Years Later, while Nia DaCosta prepares to start filming another sequel next month.
28 Years Later has wrapped production in London, capping a shoot that began towards the end of May. Everybody involved will be getting a wee summer break before reuniting to shoot the next film in the planned trilogy, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which will also be filmed in London.
Well, not quite everybody. 28 Years Later's director, Danny Boyle is passing the torch to Candyman helmer Nia DaCosta for the second film in the planned trilogy and the fourth film in the overall series. As yet, we also don’t know if the lead cast of 28 Years Later will be returning for the follow-up, that being Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes and Charlie Hunman. Hopefully it stays that way too as knowing the actors are all set to return for a sequel would diminish the stakes somewhat.
A question that we definitely would be interested in discovering an answer to, though: might both of these films release in 2025? The fact that they are virtually shooting back to back with different directors means that it’s possible from a logistical standpoint, even if it’s a move we don’t see very often. Kevin Costner’s first two Horizon films were of course planning to take this approach before the first film’s poor box office returns saw that plan altered.
Alex Garland has written the scripts for both of the upcoming 28 Years films. Could he return to the director’s chair for the third film in the planned trilogy? We don’t yet know when that one is shooting, but if Sony is planning to release one film per year, that would potentially give Garland time to enjoy something of a hiatus from directing, a break that he’s promised himself (although not a permanent retirement as originally reported) following the completion of Warfare, his next film.
The budget for 28 Years Later is said to be around $60m according to World Of Reel. That’s a fairly expensive for a Danny Boyle film, so we’re looking forward to seeing how the filmmaker elects to use those resources to expand the 28 world beyond the two original films, 2002’s 28 Days Later and 2007’s 28 Weeks Later which was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. We’ll bring you more updates on the upcoming projects as we hear them.
