28 Days Later was released in cinemas 20 years ago this week.
Released in cinemas 20 years ago this week, 28 Days Later completely reinvigorated the zombie genre, helping bring it back from the dead (sorry, not sorry), giving it some much needed heart and brains (again, no apologies to be found here).
15 years ago, the under-appreciated sequel 28 Weeks Later was released, and despite having better reviews, failed to make as much money at the box office as the original.
And now here we are, a decade-and-a-half on, and there is still no sight of 28 Months Later.
Cillian Murphy has since returned to the horror genre, having appeared in monster sequel A Quiet Place Part II (check out our interview with him on that release below), but there was no word on him returning to the zombie-ravaged apocalypse… until now.
In an interview with NME to celebrate the original movie’s 20-year anniversary, Murphy stated the following:
“I think there’s a problem with that, in that I’m 20 years older… But every time I do bump into Danny [Boyle, director] or Alex [Garland, writer] I always mention it. Because I showed it to my kids recently, some Halloween about four or five years ago, and they loved it. It really stands up, which is amazing for a film that’s 20 years old. So yeah, I love the idea and it’s very appealing to me.”
Additionally, Danny Boyle told NME about having read Alex Garland’s script for the threequel:
“I’d be very tempted [to direct it]. It feels like a very good time actually. It’s funny, I hadn’t thought about it until you just said it, and I remembered ‘Bang, this script!’ which is again set in England, very much about England. Anyway, we’ll see… who knows?
“It might come back into focus because one of the things that’s happening in the business at the moment is it has to be a big reason for you to go to the cinema, because there are less and less reasons. It’s hard for companies distributing films and for cinema chains to show films, they’re struggling to get people into the cinema unless it’s something like Top Gun: Maverick or a Marvel. But a third part would get people in, if it was half-decent.”
Cillian Murphy has recently finished filming Oppenheimer for Christopher Nolan, while Danny Boyle is currently working on Methuselah, a big action adventure with Michael B. Jordan, and Alex Garland is writing and directing his top-secret project Civil War.
But after all of those projects… maybe 28 Months Later? Or they can wait until 2030 and make it 28 Years Later?
Either way, both 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later are available to watch at home on Disney+ right now.
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