Irvine Welsh warning over possible new Trainspotting movie

Glasgow Times

29-04-2025

The Edinburgh-born author has suggested stars like Ewan McGregor and Kelly Macdonald will be too old to revive their roles.
Welsh said he wanted to see a new generation of stars given the chance to take on his characters if Men in Love is turned into a film.
However Welsh said he was still hopeful that Robert Carlyle would still be appearing in a TV adaptation of The Blade Artist, his 2017 novel focuses on the seemingly reformed Begbie, his most ultra-violent character.
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McGregor, Macdonald, Carlyle, Ewen Bremer and Jonny Lee Miller revived their roles in the original 1996 film for director Danny Boyle's 2017 sequel, T2 Trainspotting, which was set two decades on from the first film.
However Welsh said the new book would be set shortly after his debut novel, which ended with McGregor's character, Renton, fleeing for Amsterdam after stealing money he and his friends had made from a heroin deal in London.
Irvine Welsh was speaking at Paisley Book Festival. (Image: Iona Shepherd)
Speaking at the Paisley Book Festival, Welsh said he was firmly against using the latest cinematic technology to 'de-age' the actors to take them back to their mid-twenties.
He also railed against the impact of social media, mobile phones and artificial intelligence in his appearance at Paisley Town Hall.
Men in Love, which starts in the late 1980s, sees Welsh's characters leave behind heroin addiction and try to focus on serious relationships for the first time.
Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner starred in the first two Trainspotting films.
Welsh revealed that his songwriting efforts on a planned Trainspotting musical had inspired the creation of a Men in Love soul disco album which will be released to coincide with the book's publication in July.
Men in London, which was announced in December, will reunite Welsh's main characters from Trainspotting, including Renton, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie, for the first time since Dead Men's Trousers, the 2018 novel which featured the characters as middle-aged men.
They are said to leave heroin behind in favour of 'the search for love' in the new book, which is set against the backdrop of the growing rave culture scene in the UK, which has been described as 'The Second Summer of Love.'
Welsh, who was interviewed at the book festival by fellow author Ewan Morrison, who told Welsh that he was convinced that Men in Love would be turned into a feature film, but asked the writer whether he thought the original cast would be 'de-aged' for the new film.
Welsh said: 'Why would you want to do that? If you're going to go back, get a bunch of young actors and give them the opportunities.
'Give them the chance to become the next Ewan McGregors and Kelly Macdonalds.'
Welsh has suggested that the new book will show his characters becoming 'serious about the quest for romance' and would offer a rare portrayal of working-class characters with 'big emotional lives.'
He told the audience in Paisley: 'It starts off with Renton going to Amsterdam. The other three characters are picking up the pieces. Begbie and Spud are back in Leith. Sick Boy is still in London.
'It culminates in Sick Boy's wedding. He gets married to this posh bird that he has been pursuing for ages to try to get himself upwardly mobile.
It's quite a funny book in a lot of ways, but it's also quite desperate.
'It's about that time in life for guys when they get into their mid-twenties and they start taking their girlfriends seriously.
'When you're young, your mum and dad are the big influences in your life. When you are older and puberty kicks in it's your mates that are the big influences in your life. Then eventually your girlfriend starts to wear you down and take over. She becomes the big influence in your life.
'These characters are in that position, but they have all the wrong tools for it.
'When you think about it, people are supposed to get serious about life, work, careers, children in their twenties. When you look back, you think: 'How did anybody do anything successful back then?' The book is about people having good intentions, but completely '*******' it up.'
Key themes from the novel will be explored in the Men in Love album, which Welsh worked on with musician, songwriter and producer Steve Mac, a long-time collaborator with the author. It will draw on influences as varied as Chic, Shirley Bassey, Luther Vandross and Barry White.
Welsh said: 'We wrote lots of songs for the forthcoming Trainspotting musical and decided to carry on with a seventies-style soul and disco album, which is very optimistic and full of love.
'There is so much despondency and gloom around. Instead of adding to that, we wanted to make the album very upbeat. We used every influence we possibly could.'
Welsh suggested at the festival that new technology was the modern-equivalent of nicotine because of the mental health problems that were being caused around the world.
He added: 'We're not in the same physical danger now because nobody goes out, basically.
'But we are in psychological danger from all the stuff on the internet that is raising people to the ground in terms of their mental health. The internet and the iPhone are just absolutely destroying the mental health of people.
'We don't talk about that at all because we are told 'it is big tech, it is cool, it is our lives and you can't stand in the way of progress.'
'But as sure as nicotine and cigarettes caused cancer, mobile phones are basically set up for addiction.
'When you look at all these old films of people smoking all the time it looks strange and ridiculous. If we survive 50 years, hopefully people will look back. see us walking around looking into our phones and think we were weird. We are, but we are also killing ourselves with this ****.'