In 2002, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland forever changed the zombie subgenre. While the world had grown use to George A. Romero's classic shambling undead, 28 Days Later introduced audiences to the Rage Virus and the mindless infected who are basically in a full sprint at all times. It took five years for a first sequel to get made (director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's underrated 28 Weeks Later), but now, more than two decades after the series launched, we are finally getting a 28 Years Later, and the project is reteaming Boyle and Garland.
The reunion has been revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, and their collaboration is apparently going to be pitched to "studios, streamers and other potential buyers" this week. What's perhaps most exciting of all is that 28 Years Later isn't the only project that they are thinking about. The trade is saying that there is hope to develop a whole trilogy of sequels.
While Boyle is presently only attached to direct the first of these three new movies, Alex Garland will write the script for all of them. The sequels are expected to be much bigger than the original, as while 28 Days Later was made for just $8 million (per Box Office Mojo), the budgets for the upcoming projects are said to be in the $75 million range.
For those who don't recall, the 28 Days Later ending (ignoring the drastically different alternate endings) features Britain managing to not fully collapse following the epidemic, with the protagonists played by Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris surviving. But everything goes to hell in 28 Weeks Later, as containment of the Rage Virus fails, and that film ends with the disease making its way into mainland Europe. It feels fair to assume that the world didn't do a perfect job handling the situation, and what the aftermath looks like has always made 28 Years Later an intriguing premise. Boyle has talked about the potential of the project often, and it's thrilling to hear that it's actually becoming a reality.
Given the love for 28 Days Later and the box office success that the horror genre has seen recently, it feels fair to assume that the series will find a supportive home, but we'll have to wait and see which studio/streamer ends up winning the bidding war. After the dust settles, it hopefully won't be too long before we start hearing about production plans and release dates.
If you wish to celebrate this news by watching the original movies, the bad news is that 28 Days Later is not available on digital and the Blu-ray is out of print – but you can watch it for free (with commercial interruption) on Sling. 28 Weeks Later, meanwhile, is available to stream with a Hulu subscription (and is widely available on Blu-ray).
