28 Months later, the long proposed sequel to 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, has already been confirmed to have been written by Alex Garland, whom wrote the original movie. Courtesy of IGN it seems Academy Award winning British director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours), whom directed the original movie and is currently enjoying success from his latest movie Steve Jobs, is considering returning to direct the third instalment of the 28 franchise. Though very few details are revealed we suspect that Garland's screenplay will see the Rage infection on a global scale, while delving deeper into the creation of the deadly pathogen...
“I love doing stuff that is ‘How are you going to direct that? How would you do that?’ It’s like this project – it’s like the Steve Jobs. You go ‘How are you going to do that?’ That’s a wonderful place to start off. The worst place is when you know how to do it. Or you think you do. Because actually you don’t. The audience spot that quite quickly – they’re weird, and rightfully so, they’re righteous judges of us. They go ‘Oh, he’s done that before – that’s crap.’ I’ve learnt that. So if it’s something that I’ve felt that about, then I’d have no hesitation.”
“It is a good idea, which I can’t obviously say what it is. But it’s a lovely idea. Because there’s been so many stories told since we did the first one – you know in television and other movies and stuff like that. It’s become such a popular device – the walking dead if you like, or zombies, or the infected as we called them."
“But he had a lovely idea on them and it’s being worked on. It’s not as far advanced – I can’t tell you more about it than that, because it’s not as far advanced as Trainspotting 2, but then it started later. Ten months seems like a long time to you guys, but in terms of the gestation of things that’s not an enormous amount of time. I wouldn’t be over-concerned yet that it’s not going to arrive.”
The first movie 28 Days Later was released in 2002. Directed by Boyle, written by Garland and scored by John Murphy the movie starred Cillian Murphy (Dark Knight Trilogy), Brendan Gleeson (Safe House, and father of The Force Awakens Domhall Gleeson), Naomie Harris (Skyfall and Spectre) and Christoper Eccleston (Doctor Who, Thor: The Dark World). The movie told of the events starting 28 days after the release of a dangerous viral outbreak known as Rage, which caused anyone infected to become overwhelmed with anger the taste for blood. Essentially a zombie apocalypse movie, 28 Days Later differed in that the "infected" were savage, deadly and fast, as opposed to the classic slow, lumbering undead zombies seen up until that point in in typical horror cinema.
2005 saw the release of the sequel, 28 Weeks later. The sequel was directed by spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and again scored by Murphy, with Boyle and Garland returning as executive producers. Starring Robert Carlyle (Stargate: Universe), Jeremy Renner (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Harold Perrineau (The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions) and Idris Elba (Prometheus, Pacific Rim), the movie told of two siblings reunited with the father (Carlyle) 28 weeks after the Rage outbreak on the Isle of Dogs AKA District One; a secure zone free from the infected. The father is later reunited with his wife whom he abandoned during an attack from the "infected", but because she has Heterochromia (different coloured iris', much like Rock legend David Bowie) she does not show symptons of Rage, but is revealed to be carrying the infection. Upon kissing her husband he becomes infected and soon spreads Rage among the inhabitants of District One. The movie ends with the two siblings leaving for France, the younger of the two carrying the infection due to having inherited Heterochromia from his mother.
