One year after Sony let go of Danny Boyle and his “Steve Jobs” movie, the studio’s TriStar label has closed a deal for a sequel to “Trainspotting” that will reunite the director with his original cast.
Ewan McGregor will return to star alongside Jonny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner, and Robert Carlyle, while screenwriter John Hodge is back for the as-yet-untitled sequel, which is based on “Trainspotting” author Irvine Welsh‘s follow-up novel “Porno.”
Sony chief Tom Rothman has long been in Boyle’s corner, having worked with the director at Fox Searchlight on “A Life Less Ordinary,” “28 Days Later,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “127 Hours.”
Rothman and TriStar’s Hannah Minghella read the “Trainspotting 2” script late Thursday night and moved quickly to take it off the table on Friday afternoon.
The “Trainspotting” sequel will be produced by Boyle, Andrew Macdonald, Christian Colson and Bernie Bellew. Production will begin next spring in advance of a 2017 release that will mark the 21st anniversary of the original film.
“It’s been 20 years since we met these characters and John Hodge’s screenplay brilliantly explores what’s happened to them — and to us — in the intervening years. We are grateful to Tom and Hannah for their support and we can’t wait to get going,” said Boyle.
“‘Trainspotting’ was a seminal movie for me,” Minghella added. “Like almost everyone my age, I had the ‘Choose Life’ poster on my university dorm room wall. I have wanted to work with Danny ever since, so the opportunity to collaborate on the sequel is truly a dream come true. It perfectly represents the filmmaker-driven movies I am committed to making at TriStar.”