Still riding high on the success of his latest film; 127 Hours; director Danny Boyle recently spoke about the possibility of producing a sequel to one of his best loved films; 1996’s Trainspotting; and has said that a follow up picture “will happen.”
Blowing open the potential of British filmmaking, and introducing the film-going-public to an unashamed view of the 1990’s heroin culture that didn’t take sides, but presented things as they were, Trainspotting was hugely acclaimed, and gained a massive cult following, who would no doubt be interested to see where the characters of Renton (Ewan McGregor, Big Fish), Spud (Ewen Bremmer, Black Hawk Down), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller, Plunkett & Macleane), and Begbie (Robert Carlyle, The Full Monty) have ended up; something that has already been explored in book form.
Irvine Welsh’s 2002 novel (titled Porno) is the official sequel to Trainspotting, and catches up with the characters a decade after the events of the movie (as it appears to be more of a sequel to the film than the original book); with Renton running a club in Amsterdam, Spud feeling suicidal, and Begbie having been recently released from prison; but according to Boyle “it’s not a great book in the way that Trainspotting is genuinely a masterpiece” and so is more difficult to develop.
But while Porno might not make for a great read, Boyle has stated that he’s been “doing some work on it”, and has found that not only does it “have potential”, but that he’s got “a very strong idea that it would be a wonderful thing to reproach; where they’ve all aged clearly into a mid-life crisis.”
One of the main issues facing production however will be reuniting the original cast, and convincing them that a sequel is worth making (something that may prove more difficult with some than others), yet it’s not an immediate concern; as when Boyle was asked when he would be approaching the sequel, he simply stated “when the moment’s right.”
