20 years ago, Danny Boyle released Trainspotting, one of the defining films of the 1990s and the breakout hit in the career of the man who would become one of Britain's biggest auteurs. Since then, Boyle has crafted a classic horror movie (28 Days Later), an undervalued kids film (Millions), and won an Oscar for one of the worst films of his career, namely Slumdog Millionaire. And just last year, he stepped in to helm Steve Jobs, an interesting but not particularly successful attempt to summate the titular Apple pioneer, when David Fincher asked for too much to make great movie instead of a fascinating one. Oh well.
Despite blips of notable work, Boyle has never quite returned to the level of formal ambition and attitude that denoted Trainspotting and his feature-film debut, Shallow Grave, easily the best film of his career. Those who endured Trance and Slumdog Millionaire might not be able to imagine that Boyle can get back to that personal, intimate, and lively type of filmmaking but the recent announcement that he will be directing a sequel to Trainspotting has given some of us hope. And today, Sony announced that the film begins shooting today with much of the same cast that made the original so striking, including Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, and Ewan McGregor.
I was hoping for some word on Kelly Macdonald and Peter Mullan coming back, but no such luck from what the video unveils. In fact, the video only highlights some key scenes from the first film as it announces that the movie is on course to see release on January 27th, 2017, in the UK, and has begun filming as of this morning. It's not much at all honestly, but for a die-hard fan of the original like myself, it's a nice way to start the morning...and a reason to revisit the original as soon as possible.
Here's the announcement video for Trainspotting 2:
