“28 Years Later,” the sequel to “28 Days Later” that will once again be directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, has found a home.
The hotly anticipated legacy sequel, which sparked a bidding war, landed at Sony on Wednesday, TheWrap has learned.
The deal for “28 Years Later” also includes a sequel, to be written by Garland but directed by an as-yet-undetermined filmmaker. This actually somewhat follows the pattern of the first film, which was followed by a sequel called “28 Weeks Later,” that Boyle and Garland were not intimately involved with. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo directed from a script he wrote with Jesus Olmo, Rowan Joffé and Enrique López Lavigne.
Cillian Murphy, the “Oppenheimer” Oscar nominee who got his big break in the first film, is also back as an executive producer. Reports about the story for the new film have yet to be revealed, but the door is open for Murphy to also appear in the film.
The original 2002 release grappled with some still-fresh post-9/11 anxieties in its depiction of a zombie outbreak in modern London. The project looked to update zombie lore both in look and feel, with Boyle and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle sometimes capturing the action with consumer-grade video cameras, adding to the sense of immediacy and relatability.
“28 Days Later” was championed as reviving the zombie genre, with projects like “Shaun of the Dead” and “The Walking Dead” following in its wake. You can still feel its influence today on the horror genre, with its fast zombies and jittery camerawork. It’s enough to make you wonder how “28 Years Later” will mix things up for a new generation.
The Hollywood Reporter first shared the news.
