Perhaps the most intriguing thing about the news that Danny Boyle, Alex Garland and Cillian Murphy are to reunite on a long awaited threequel to the classic new wave zombie horror 28 Days Later, is that none of the above really need a career hike. When film-makers and movie stars return to the source for a belated follow-up, there is often a distinct whiff of greatest hits tour about it. Let’s get the old band back together for one last dip into the coffers before retirement. Who doesn’t need a second beach house in Malibu to hang out in when the glory days are over?
But while Boyle isn’t quite hitting the high notes he did with the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire or cult classic Trainspotting, he remains one of Britain’s most celebrated film-makers. Garland has morphed into a doyen of genre cinema, creator of Ex-Machina and Annihilation. Murphy, who is producing and may take a role, is hot off the success of the multiple Oscar-nominated Oppenheimer, and really doesn’t need to be slumming it in zombie films. The sense is that the trio must have something seriously interesting to say if they are coming back to this one now, decades on from the lightning-strike success of the inspirational original.
