It was announced earlier this month that Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel to 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, titled 28 Years Later.
The Hollywood Reporter brings us an update this afternoon, announcing that the package has been acquired by Sony, who won a bidding war to land the hotly anticipated project.
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, and THR notes that he “could also possibly act in the project, although details are being quarantined.”
The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – and possibly two more!
THR notes, “The deal details are unavailable. Each movie would have a budget in the $60 million range but it’s unclear how goalposts or compensation may have changed during the high-stakes negotiations. A theatrical release was of great import to the filmmakers.”
The original movie in 2002 starred Cillian Murphy and was written by Alex Garland and directed by Danny Boyle. In the smash hit horror film, “Four weeks after a mysterious, incurable virus spreads throughout the UK, a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.”
A sequel, 28 Weeks Later, arrived in 2007. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo took over as director. In the sequel, which starred Jeremy Renner, “Six months after the rage virus was inflicted on the population of Great Britain, the US Army helps to secure a small area of London for the survivors to repopulate and start again. But not everything goes according to plan.”
Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024. Stay tuned for more updates soon!
