It’s been almost twenty years since Danny Boyle‘s Trainspotting brought us breakout performances of Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller and Kelly Macdonald. Not their first performances, but quite possibly some of the earliest that people remember. (We of course first remember seeing Miller in 1995’s Hackers.) Boyle’s been vocal about wanting to do a follow-up to the film for years and it’s now been confirmed that his sequel to the 1996 film will feature the original cast.
Based on the 1993 novel of the same name, Trainspotting followed a group of heroin addicts in late ’80s Scotland through their day-to-day lives. A grim look at addiction shown through the direction of Boyle was not just a beautiful film but solidified him as a director and became the example most of his later films have been measured against. There have been talks about a sequel for years that would follow the Irvine Welsh book’s sequel, Porno, (obviously this won’t be the name of the movie) which takes place about 9 years after the events of the first book. With 20 years gone by and everyone involved having aged, it’s safe to say the sequel will pick up a little later than the events of book.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a deal has been struck that includes the original cast including Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner, and Robert Carlyle as well as the first film’s screenwriter John Hodge. If the result of getting the whole team back together results in anything near the original, we’ll be overjoyed.
It’ll be interesting to see how the sequel is handled in terms of perspective. The Trainspotting novel had shifting narratives between characters (as does Porno) while the majority of the film is shown primarily through the perspective of McGregor’s Mark Renton. Will we get to see the world through the eyes of Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie this time, or will it all be secondhand through Renton once more? We can’t wait to find out!
What do you think about the news of the cast returning? Think they’ll adapt a lot of the novel or go in a new direction? Let us know in the comments below!
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HT: Indiewire
Image: Miramax
