What you may need to know
1. We’re putting the band back together. Director Danny Boyle has reunited the original cast (Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Johnny Lee Miller, Ewan Bremner and Kelly McDonald), for a sequel to his era-defining 1996 comedy drama based on the novel by Irvine Welsh. Original screenwriter John Hodge is also back on board.
2. We can only hope Welsh will reprise his role as weaselly drug dealer Mikey Forrester; he has hinted as much on twitter. Russian sailors optional.
3. Set 20 years later and partially adapted from Welsh’s 2002 novel Porno, Mark Renton (McGregor) is back in Edinburgh to finally confront his friends after stealing £16,000 from them and fleeing to Amsterdam at the end of the first film. Sick Boy (Miller) and Spud (Bremner) are happy enough to see him, less so Begbie (Carlyle).
4. This feels like a good idea. Trainspotting launched the careers of its cast and director; reuniting exactly 20 years later feels distinctly uncynical. Less a cash-in than a genuine curiosity for them as much as the audience to learn what became of the characters.
5. Trainspotting 2 might have happened years ago, were it not for Boyle and McGregor falling out when the latter was passed over for the lead role in Boyle’s 2000 gap-year adventure The Beach. You dodged a bulled there Ewan, in fairness.
6. There are a quite a few visual references to the original in this trailer, and the remix of Renton’s iconic “Choose Life” monologue feels clunky. One would hope Boyle and co haven’t settled for a rehash. The only other sequel he has been involved in (as executive producer) was the excellent 28 Weeks Later (2007), and a rehash that most certainly was not.
7. On that note, Danny, how about you give us 28 Months Later next?
8. In a 2014 interview, Welsh called Boyle “a colossus”, saying “we’re all protective of the Trainspotting legacy and we want to make a film that adds to that legacy and doesn’t take away from it.”
9.Similarly Robert Carlyle told NME last year it’s one of the best scripts he’s ever read.
“This will be an emotional experience for people. [..] That’s really what the whole thing is about. Have these four characters changed? Have they remained the same? Have they f****d it up completely? Have they achieved anything? And of course the audience are going to be asking themselves exactly the same questions.”
Verdict: Let’s skip the garlic bread and proceed directly to January 27, 2017 (release date).
Oh dear.
I agree. These last ditch attempts to get another suck out of the orange rarely, if ever, prove worth the effort.
Trailer looks good though.
OP here. It doesn’t seem like a “last ditch” effort though does it None of them need the work. Boyle isn’t a hack by any stretch. It’s not Lethal Weapon 5 they’re doing.
It’s also ‘loosely’ based on Porno, which was the follow up book. And which was very good iirc
Sorry, Doug, you’re no BB.
Ewen Bremner – the only Scottish thesp who out-hams Dougray Scott and Gary Lewis.
Potential to be poor. Could be good.
I still think they should have called the sequel Three Men and a Begbie
ha ha ha
28 weeks later was rubbish. re-populating the UK after the zombie outbreak is finished, oh wait, Zombies, we’re all dead. the end.
Wrong. Everything was against it and it still brought style and substance. Great performances too. A terrific sequel
looks like they’re rehashing a lot of old scenes….
I hope it’s great
We’ve all forgotten how terrible the second half of the original was. It falls apart when Renton moves to London and it gets all heisty.
Fair to say it ran out of steam alright.
I always thought the best bit about Trainspotting was the soundtrack personally.
Gawd, the soundtrack, and the one from Pulp Fiction were the ‘must picks’ from Brittania Music club 5 for a quid offer you’d sign up to when you moved into a new student house back in the day….
ha, I got “solicitors letters” for years from that crowd
Best of luck with the new gig Doug:)
No more Bertie?
Let’s just say I had a difference of opinion with Mr Broadsheet.
Spill Bertie.
Ah it wouldn’t be right to discuss a gentleman’s disagreement.
As I said, best of luck to the new chap, not going to sully his thread with me me me. :)
No fun….. :)
A “rehash” …….a sorry what now….
oh, never mind….
* sticks head back in cistern *
Is there any example of a 20 year or so sequel that lived up to the original more than in just a ‘well that was alright, I guess’ way? Psycho II was decent. Boondock Saints 2 less so…
Mad Max: Fury Road
awful
Scream 2!!!
Titanic II
The best thing to come out of Trainspotting was obviously Kelly MacDonald…. that accent, those eyes… :)
What about Margaret Shooooooooder, da wee pup
Ah twas quite the accent Margaret had, so it was.
28 Months later…yes please
Anyone tried to recreate the Spud scene with the sheets?