“I mean, this is our culture?” Asks Danny Boyle rhetorically. “Or?”
Or maybe it doesn’t mean rhetorically-the British director tends to ask as many questions in interviews as to give answers, and seems to be sincerely interested in a conversation instead of simply delivering the “answer” part of a Q&A. It’s Sunday and Boyle is in New York for less than 24 hours. He is here for a very early demonstration of “28 Years Later”, the long -awaited third part of a trilogy that began with his post -apocalyptic horror albaum in 2002. (Technically, it is also the first film of a possible new trilogy – more on that later.) In the coming weeks there will be press releases that will show Boyle at events in Paris, Rome, London and other cities – cities that are transformed into urban ruins in the event of a viral outbreak.
Today, however, Boyle is sitting in a hotel room in the Bowery and indicates everything that surrounds him: the army of lights, built up for a photo shoot later a day. Some inactive video cameras. A smartphone on the coffee table next to him. The sound of everyday life from outside, through the window of a busy street. That is what the filmmaker means by “our culture” – a world that is constantly shaped and ruled by new technology.
“What happens when our culture dies?”
“We are now so closely linked to technology and technological development that we grow with this development,” he says. “So if technology stops developing, does it mean that we stop developing as a species? What happens if something interrupts or completely ends like an apocalypse?” Boyle’s usual mood is usually cheerful and smiling, but at that moment it really looks scared. “What happens when our culture dies?”
It has been about 23 years ago that Boyle with “28 Days Later” … gifted, a variant of the zombief film that imagined a virus epidemic, which turned normal citizens into frenzied, carnivorous monsters. Inspired by a journey that screenwriter Alex Garland had made into a disaster area, the film sent his bicycle courier hero Jim, played by Cillian Murphy, through a survival test from spooky empty rooms and intensive attacks brainless sprinting hordes. It is not an exaggeration to say that this film helped revive a whole horror subgenre-and with the exception of the gene-definent “train spotting” and the Oscar-winning “Slumdog Millionaire”, Boyle’s end-time vision probably remains his most famous work. “Most films disappear, regardless of whether they are successful or not,” he admits. “If you are lucky, one or two stays present. And” 28 Days “has done, for whatever reason. It has become this film. “
Return to the pandemic: The idea for sequel
A sequel, “28 Weeks Later”, appeared in 2007; Boyle and Garland acted as executing producers, but were not directly involved in the conception. While the years passed and the cult status of the original grew, fans hoped that the two might return to this fictional wasteland – a scene that became more and more relevant and influential over time. The topic came up regularly when Boyle and Garland spoke about possible joint projects.
Garland mentioned an idea for another story in the “28 Days” universe at some point. But he didn’t want to write the script himself; Garland was now busy with other projects. The idea was passed on to another author. A script was created. It didn’t work. Then, after the Covid pandemic, Garland began to write a new script that imagined what could have happened since the last appearance of the “Rage Virus” in the United Kingdom.
“Yes, it was complete and absolutely damn more generic,” says Garland Laughing when we speak via zoom a few weeks after Boyle’s visit. “There was always something slightly pointed on ’28 Days Later ‘what, I think, from our age, our origin, our youth. The idea was that a group of military command breaks through the quarantine to get to the place of origin of the virus and find a ceremony. When they arrive, they meet another group that is already there-and tries to make the virus a weapon. Chinese special forces would be completely on mandarin and subtitled – just to annoy the audience a bit. ”
A generic script becomes creative liberation
There were shootings, mass scenes, action-heavy set-sites, says Garland, “and I was able to imagine a whole series of directors who could implement this well.” But even he found that the story was far too predictable. This feeling was confirmed when he showed Boyle the script.
“Danny basically said: ‘Alex, do you want to fool me?'” He admits. “Maybe not quite as direct. Or. But he tried very nice to let it work somehow work: ‘What if we do it?’ In the end we gave up the liberating solution for all our problems.
Back to Holy Island: nature, isolation and the end of technology
What the two then developed for 28 Years Later … was the idea of a community that lives in complete isolation on the Holy Island on the north coast of England. The focus is on a family: a father (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), one of the leaders; His young son (Alfie Williams); And a mother (Jodie Comer) who is not infected but appears mysteriously ill. Instead of showing the global aftermath, the story focuses on how almost three decades have changed the life of these figures under the shadow of death. It should be more of a folk horror film, with emphasis on nature-and the lack of technology (see Boyles above cultural comments)-and still keep up with the first part in the intensity. “By giving Alex Kleiner,” said Boyle, “he could become bigger and deeper at the same time. Brilliant.”
From this center they were able to expand the world. The island is connected to the mainland via a dam, passable at low tide. In the decades in between, the virus has developed, there are victims who feed on AAS (“crawlers”) and others who form into primitive packs. These are led by so -called “alphas”: stronger, faster, more intelligent, more fatal hunters. Boyle was obsessed with the idea of toxic social regional development-keyword Maga, Brexit-and brought elements of British pre-war military history, Henry-V fixation and symbolism such as the St. George flag. “The virus continues to develop,” says Boyle. “The remaining British who fight against it moves backwards.”
Ralph Fiennes as a dazzling horror figure
And they created a formative horror figure for the second half of the film: a doctor named Kelman, who has retired to the wilderness and lives there as mythologically excessive insane. Part Dr. Livingstone, part Colonel Kurtz. (“I didn’t think of Livingstone,” says Garland. “Definitely to Kurtz. A reverse Kurtz.”) Played by Ralph Fiennes, barely dressed and covered with red-in-colored iodine, he is immediately introduced as a villain. But Kelman proves to be much more complex. [Zahlreiche Spoiler folgen, Sie sind gewarnt.] “Ralph was asked in an interview what it is like to play the ‘villain’,” Boyle recalls. “He said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m one of the good ones!’ And I just thought: Ralph, that should be a surprise! “
Cillian Murphy’s return and future plans
Rumors about the reappearance of Cillian Murphys Jim in “28 Years Later” circulated for a long time. The trailer shows an emaciated infected in a field that Murphy looks amazingly similar.
“Yes, that … oh man,” says Boyle, head in his hands, then laughing. “Someone said to me, ‘Everyone will think that is Cillian Murphy.’ And I like that: ‘Don’t be silly.’ And of course she was right!
In fact, says Boyle, it’s not Jim. However, Murphy’s hero will appear in the second film, “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”. Directed by Nia da Costa (Candyman), cinema release is in January. At the end of the first film, a gang of acrobatic stray appears, called “the Jimmys”, which play a central role in part two. Boyle describes the film as “a debate about the essence of evil between Kelman and the leader of the Jimmys, played by Jack O’Connell. And Alex and I wrote a third film – this will be Cillians Murphy’s film. The circle would close. Whether we get the budget depends on the success of this film.” He pauses. “I don’t know if I should say that …” [Anmerkung: Boyle wird in den nächsten zwei Wochen auf Pressetour genau darüber sprechen.]
Fear as a global basic feeling
The director is happy to return to this world-in a way that honors the original without copying it or letting it go to the fan service. In contrast to 2002, this sequel appears in a world that has not only had two decades of zombie industry (“I wish we would get royalties for it!”, Jokes Boyle), but also changed a lot.
“In addition to Potter and Bond, I think our greatest cinema export is horror,” says Boyle with regard to the British film industry. “Horror revolves around fear. And I think not only in England, but all over the world everyone is feeling exactly that: fear. Fear of the end – it is universal. But you can’t allow the end. You have to go on.”