28 Days Later director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland finally reunited to make a sequel to their zombie (or, if you prefer, infected people) movie classic. 28 Years Later, which is meant to launch a whole trilogy of 28 Days Later sequels, reached theatres at the end of June, and the second chapter in the trilogy, 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple, is scheduled to be released on January 16, 2026. Garland also wrote the screenplays for the sequels that will come after 28 Years Later. Boyle directed the first one, then passed the helm over to Candyman and The Marvels director Nia DaCosta for the sequel – and during an appearance at an Edinburgh International Film Festival event, DaCosta admitted that she asked Garland to write more of the infected into the script.
DaCosta said (with thanks to The Hollywood Reporter for the transcription), “Making the 28 Years Later sequel was one of the best filmmaking experiences I’ve had. One of the issues I had with Candyman and Marvels was the lack of a really solid script, which is always gonna just wreak havoc on the whole process. But Alex Garland hands you a script, and you’re like, ‘This is amazing.’ You don’t really have to change it, although I did, I basically asked for more infected. [Laughs.] That was, like, my big contribution. I inherited an amazing cast, then I was given the leeway to cast the rest of the film. There were a couple of locations I inherited. I was given the leeway to develop all the other locations. Some of it overlapped, like the character Samson — Danny and I would collaborate a bit on the look, but at the end of the day, Danny shoots so different from the way I shoot.“
Thanks to their deal with Sony, each of the films in the trilogy will be receiving a theatrical release and will have budgets in the $60 million range. 28 Years Later had a budget of $75 million. Boyle and Garland produced 28 Years Later with Bernie Bellew, original producer Macdonald, and Peter Rice, who was the head of Fox Searchlight Pictures when that company backed 28 Days Later. Cillian Murphy received an executive producer credit.
Boyle might circle back to direct 28 Years Later Part III, but that one doesn’t have a full greenlight yet, and probably won’t until we see how the second film does at the box office. 28 Years Later made $150 million at the global box office, but seemed to have trouble connecting with the audience. JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray gave 28 Years Later a 7/10 review, and when we got a second opinion from Kier Gomes, he gave it a 6.5.
Are you looking forward to 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple, and to seeing the extra infected DaCosta asked Garland to write into the script? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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