‘28 Years Later' Director Danny Boyle On Return To Horror Series & Whether 007 Is In His Future
Yes, there are a lot of horror movies out right now, and there are a lot of zombie everywhere from TV to film. But when they're great, they'll definitely find an audience. Enter the next installment of Danny Boyle's 28 infected feature series 28 Years Later, which elevates the undead genre to sophisticated storytelling (a helluva second act) and visual dimensions, the latter as the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire director shot the movie on an iPhone 15 ProMax with a Theo Angelopoulos sense of natural lighting.
There was always a want for both screenwriter Alex Garland and Boyle to return to the 28 films after 2009's 28 Weeks Later (which was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo). While talks fell apart back in the day, coming away from a global pandemic can serve as an inspiration for a director and scribe whose previous work on the subject seemed prescience for a year when 2020 was destitute and shut down. Boyle expounds on the duo's inspirations in the latest episode of Deadline's Crew Call podcast.
More from Deadline
'28 Years Later' Review: Danny Boyle Delivers Severed Heads And Broken Hearts In His Gory Zombie-Horror Threequel
'28 Years Later' Trailer: Zombie That Looks Like Cillian Murphy Looms Over Jodie Comer In Gripping Teaser For Danny Boyle Sequel
'28 Years Later' Walking To $56M+ WW Opening, 'Elio' Orbiting $50M+ WW As 'Dragon' Looks To Lord U.S. Box Office - Preview
On what makes this zombie-like feature (ya see, they're undead and they've been made that way by a virus) stand apart is its tender story of a father, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who takes his young son, played by Alfie Williams, to the quarantine UK isle where the monsters run amok. Says Boyle, 'There's a movement toward beauty, and as well it's not just about horror, and there is lots of horror in it, but it's also a movement toward beauty as well.'
Boyles explains why he's not directing all three planned films (the third movie doesn't even have financing yet, per the director, but Sony has the option to make it after winning the trilogy in an auction) and whether he'd ever think of directing Bond again in the new Amazon MGM Studios regime.
28 Years Later is opening Friday in what's looking to be a $28 million-$30 million domestic debut.
Listen to our chat with Boyle below:
Best of Deadline
'Stick' Soundtrack: All The Songs You'll Hear In The Apple TV+ Golf Series
'Stick' Release Guide: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
'The Buccaneers' Season 2 Soundtrack: From Griff To Sabrina Carpenter
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Lizzo Reacts to Performance of ‘About Damn Time' at President Trump's Military Parade
When Lizzo sang, 'Turn up the music, let's celebrate,' Donald Trump's widely protested military birthday parade was not what she had in mind. After video of a performer singing Lizzo's Billboard Hot 100-topping hit 'About Damn Time' at the event in Washington, D.C., on Saturday (June 14) surfaced online, the hitmaker made her feelings quite clear in a TikTok posted over the weekend. Stitching the clip with a few seconds of footage of the parade singer's breathless live rendition of the self-love anthem — performed in front of a gathering on the National Mall — Lizzo then cuts to a shot of herself staring pointedly at the camera, looking perplexed and disgusted. More from Billboard Tyler, the Creator, Finneas, Kehlani & More React to Los Angeles Protests Against ICE Addison Rae Announces Dates For Debut 2025 Headlining World Tour How Brandon Lake Is Leading A Whole New Flock To 'What's Real And What's True' In Christian Music 'cease & desist,' she wrote in the caption. It's unclear which performer is singing 'About Damn Time' in the video Lizzo shared, but according to USA Today, the parade stage's lineup included DJ Nyla Symone, Lee Greenwood, Scotty Hasting, Noah Hicks and Warren Zeiders. The choice to cover the Grammy-winning hit at Trump's procession was certainly an interesting one, though, as Lizzo — who endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 election — has made her disapproval of the twice-impeached POTUS very clear over the years. She's not the only one. While Trump was celebrating the U.S. Army's 250th birthday — as well as his own 79th birthday, which was also Saturday — through a grand show of military might in D.C., a slew of 'No Kings' gatherings broke out across the country in protest of his administration. Those overlapped with the ongoing protests in Los Angeles against the country's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, which recently launched raids into multiple workplaces across the city in the name of alleged immigration violations. Lizzo also posted several times about the ICE raids on Bluesky a few days prior to her TikTok about the military parade. 'The irony of an ice agent forcing a Mexican person off of their ancestral land when that agent's ancestors are European immigrants is just…,' she wrote in one post, adding in another: 'And still … there are people who voted for this who are going to sleep with a smile on their faces pleased as pie … It's a wild world y'all.' See Lizzo's TikTok below. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
‘The Summer I Turned Pretty' Season 3 Sets Episode Rollout: One Per Week Wednesdays After First Two Premiere
Prime Video has cleared up the buzz around The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3 rollout. The third and final season of Prime Video's young adult series, adapted from Jenny Han's best-selling trilogy, will premiere with two episodes followed by a new episode every week on Wednesdays until the series finale, which lands September 17. More from Deadline 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Season 3: Everything We Know So Far 'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Casts Isabella Briggs, Kristen Connolly, Five More 'We Were Liars' Stars Emily Alyn Lind And Shubham Maheshwari Talk Cady And Gat's Romance: "There Was Going To Be A Crack" Season 3 will conclude Belly's (Lola Tung) love story between the Fisher brothers Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and Conrad (Christopher Briney) in an expanded 11 episodes, one of which Han returning for Season 3 are Sean Kaufman as Belly's older brother Steven and Rain Spencer as Belly's best friend Taylor Jewell. Jackie Chung portrays Belly and Steve's mother Laurel. The first season arrived on Prime Video with all episodes dropping in a binge in the summer of 2022. Then, Season 2 premiered with its first three episodes before shifting to one per week in the summer of 2023. RELATED: As of the two trailers released for the show so far, viewers can expect lots of scenes of Belly and Jeremiah dating at Finch University, where they both go to college. Taylor Swift's 'Daylight' plays during the montages of them participating in the typical college lifestyle. Belly made the choice between brothers at the end of Season 2 after she had previously dated Conrad. The fuller trailer teases a big event from Han's We'll Always Have Summer book — Belly and Jeremiah's wedding, but their announcement is met with much hesitation on the part of Belly's mom. In the teaser trailer, Belly and Jeremiah's lovey-dovey moments are interrupted by Conrad walking into the Cousins Beach house, a candy cane in his mouth, set to Taylor Swift's 'Red (Taylor's Version)'. So far the series posters have stressed all three primary colors, first yellow, then red and now blue. Season Three is helmed by showrunners Jenny Han and Sarah Kucserka, with both also serving as executive producers alongside Karen Rosenfelt, Paul Lee, Hope Hartman, and Mads Hansen of wiip. The series is produced by Amazon MGM Studios and wiip. RELATED: Best of Deadline Everything We Know About 'Margo's Got Money Troubles' So Far TV Show Book Adaptations Arriving In 2025 So Far Everything We Know About The 'We Were Liars' Show So Far
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Why a boutique video label is taking over L.A.'s theaters, plus the week's best movies
Hello! I'm Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies. Among this week's new releases is '28 Years Later,' the third film in the series that dates back to 2002's '28 Days Later.' The new project reunites the core creative team from the first movie: director Danny Boyle, screenwriter Alex Garland, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle and producer Andrew Macdonald. This time out the 'rage' virus that turns people into crazed cannibal monsters has been isolated to the U.K., which has been quarantined from the rest of the world. A small community of uninfected survivors live on a coastal island and make their way to the mainland to hunt and for supplies. A teenage boy (Alfie Williams), having made one expedition with his father (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), goes back with his ailing mother (Jodie Comer) in search of a doctor (Ralph Fiennes) rumored to be able to help them. In her review of the film, Amy Nicholson wrote that it 'has a dull central plot beefed up by unusual ambition, quirky side characters and maniacal editing. It's a kooky spectacle, a movie that aggressively cuts from moments of philosophy to violence, from pathos to comedy. Tonally, it's an ungainly creature. From scene to scene, it lurches like the brain doesn't know what the body is doing. Garland and Boyle don't want the audience to know either, at least not yet.' '28 Years Later' is the first film in a planned trilogy, with the second film, directed by Nia DaCosta, having already been shot. I spoke with Boyle, Garland, Mantle and Macdonald for a feature story that will be in print on Sunday. Whereas the original '28 Days Later' was notable for its use of consumer-grade digital video cameras, this time the production used modified iPhones to capture most of its imagery. The result is a fresh and distinctive look with both a sense of immediacy and an unexpected beauty. 'What was great about the script is that although you were inheriting some DNA from the original film, it was a completely original story,' said Boyle. 'And deserved to be treated like that.' This week the boutique home video label Cinématographe is participating in screenings all over town, further cementing the evolving relationship between physical media and the local revival scene. Curated and produced by Justin LaLiberty as an offshoot of the Vinegar Syndrome label, Cinématographe is among a handful of companies that create releases meant to look as nice on your shelf as they do onscreen. With beautiful restorations presenting the titles as optimally as possible, the releases come with many extras highlighting their production and what makes them special, alongside new critical essays on the films. Among the titles released by the company so far are John Dahl's 'Red Rock West,' Paul Schrader's 'Touch,' Robert Altman's 'Thieves Like Us' and Martha Coolidge's 'Joy of Sex.' 'Cinématographe has a very specific kind of curatorial approach,' said LaLiberty in a Zoom call this week from his home in Connecticut. 'And it also has a mission in that it's trying to shine a light on these movies that have fallen into obscurity for one reason or another.' Working in conjunction with the local screening collective Hollywood Entertainment in pulling together some of the local events, LaLiberty got a sense of the current repertory scene in L.A. and hopes that putting on Cinématographe screenings here is something that can become a regular occurrence. 'What I like about L.A.'s cinema scene, without being there, is seeing how the spaces cater to different audiences,' said LaLiberty. 'It happens in New York to an extent too, but I've noticed it a lot more with L.A. where I think just by virtue of geography, those theaters have to build a community that's a lot more specific to whatever their mission may be or whatever audience they're trying to cultivate is. So that's what I tried to do with these screenings is kind of hone in on what demographic those spaces are going to reach and what film made the most sense for each one.' On Sunday at Brain Dead Studios there will be a restored 4K screening of the exuberant 1983 remake of 'Breathless' with director Jim McBride in person. That will be followed by the Los Angeles premiere of the 4K restoration of Bob Saget's 1998 comedy 'Dirty Work,' starring Norm MacDonald, in its newly created 'Dirtier Cut,' which restores the film to a version screened for test audiences before it was chopped down to earn a PG-13 rating. Co-writer Frank Sebastiano will be in attendance. On Monday, LaLiberty will be at a pop-up at the Highland Park video store Vidéotheque, selling discs from Cinématographe, Vinegar Syndrome and affiliated titles from OCN Distribution — including some that are out of print. (Discs will be on sale at all the events too.) On Tuesday at Whammy Analog Media, 1994's essential lesbian rom-com 'Go Fish' will show in a 4K restoration with director and co-writer Rose Troche in person. On Wednesday, there will be a 45th anniversary screening at Vidiots of the 4K restoration of Ronald F. Maxwell's 1980 'Little Darlings,' starring Tatum O'Neal and Kristy McNichol as two teenage girls having a private competition at summer camp to lose their virginity. On Thursday, in conjunction with Cinematic Void, the Los Feliz 3 will host a showing of John Badham's 1994 action-thriller 'Drop Zone' starring Wesley Snipes, with the director in person. And while it may seem counterintuitive for a home video label to be encouraging people to go see movies in theaters, for LaLiberty the two go hand in hand. 'My ultimate mission is for these films to find an audience,' LaLiberty said. ''Little Darlings' is one of those movies that was out of circulation for so long that now that it's back and people can find it — to me that's the work. The end goal is that these films are brought back and that they're available for people to see and talk about and share. Theaters can play them and have them look great. I don't see it as cannibalizing. I see it as just being a part of the job.' The American Cinematheque is launching a series looking at films from Southeast Asia made around the turn of the 21st century and shot through with the energy of specific Y2K anxieties. These were films that felt cutting-edge and of the moment when they were released, but now perhaps function at least in part as memory pieces of their time and place. This is a sharp, smartly put-together series that contextualizes a group of films and filmmakers. Kicking off with Wong Kar-wai's 1995 'Fallen Angels,' the series also includes Hou Hsiao-hsien's 2001 'Millennium Mambo,' Tsai Ming-liang's 1992 'Rebels of the Neon God,' Fruit Chan's 1997 'Made in Hong Kong,' Shunji Iwai's 2001 'All About Lily Chou-Chou' Jia Zhangke's 2002 'Unknown Pleasures' and Lou Ye's 2000 'Suzhou River.' Writing about 'Fallen Angels' in 1998, Kevin Thomas called it 'an exhilarating rush of a movie, with all manner of go-for-broke visual bravura that expresses perfectly the free spirits of his bold young people. … Indeed, 'Fallen Angels' celebrates youth, individuality and daring in a ruthless environment that is wholly man-made, a literal underworld similar to the workers' realm of 'Metropolis' — only considerably less spacious. Life proceeds at a corrosive rock music beat.' 'Dogtooth' in 4K Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos' second feature, 'Dogtooth,' was his international breakthrough, winner of the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes and nominated for an Oscar. Yet even its most ardent admirers at the time would likely never have imagined Lanthimos would become the maker of commercially successful, Oscar-winning (and still weird) films such as 'The Favourite' and 'Poor Things.' A new 4K restoration of 'Dogtooth' will screen at the American Cinematheque at the Los Feliz 3 on Saturday, Tuesday and Sunday the 29th. The story feels abstracted and fractured, as a family lives in comfortable isolation, creating their own rules and language as the parents attempt to keep their children, now young adults, in a state of arrested development. When it was first being released, 'Dogtooth' struggled to find screens in Los Angeles. In my January 2011 review, I referred to it as 'part enigma, part allegory and even part sci-fi in its creation of a completely alternate reality.' When the film had its local premiere as part of the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival some seven months earlier, I spoke to Lanthimos, who perhaps pointed the way to some of his future work when he said, 'It's much more important to me for the audience to be engaged and to think about things themselves. If they miss any information, I'm OK with that instead of explaining every little detail and telling everyone what they should be thinking and how exactly things are.' Lanthimos added, 'People ask me if the film is about home-schooling or if it's political, about totalitarian states or the information we get from the media. And of course all those things were not in our minds as we were making the film, but it was intentional to make the film so people can come in and have their own thoughts about it.' 'The Seven Year Itch' 70th anniversary On Wednesday the Laemmle Royal will present a 70th anniversary screening of Billy Wilder's 'The Seven Year Itch' introduced by film writers Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan. Starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, 'Itch' was written by Wilder and George Axelrod, an adaptation of the hit Broadway play that also starred Ewell. Though the movie does include the iconic scene of Monroe standing over a subway grate, it deserves to be remembered for much more than that. It's a bracing satire of midcentury masculinity, with Ewell playing a mild-mannered family man who lets himself be taken away by fantasies of what may happen while he is on his own for a summer with a young single woman living upstairs from his New York apartment. Writing about the movie in June 1955, Edwin Schallert said, 'This picture is nothing for the moralists, though it may not quite satisfy the immoralists either, whoever they are.' Tom Cruise, Dolly Parton among honorary Oscar recipients This week the motion picture academy announced four honorees for the Governors Awards in November. Dolly Parton will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, while honorary Oscars will go to actor, dancer, choreographer and director Debbie Allen, production designer Wynn Thomas and actor and producer Tom Cruise. As always, it must be noted how disappointing it is that these awards will be bestowed at an untelevised ceremony and not as part of the Academy Awards telecast itself. The idea of giving an award to Tom Cruise, who has recently refashioned himself as nothing less than an international ambassador for movies and Hollywood in general, and not putting it on TV is just beyond reason. Here is hoping that Cruise will perhaps be able to do what his co-star in 'The Color of Money' Paul Newman once did, which is win a competitive Oscar after already being given an honorary one.
