For years now the internet has been buzzing with rumours of a sequel to Danny Boyle’s 1996 hit Trainspotting. The author who wrote the book that the film is based on, Irvine Welsh, wrote a sequel in 2002 titled Porno and now, Boyle has confirmed that he will film the adaptation of that book in 2016. Furthermore, he thinks he can get the entire original cast back for the sequel.
Around a year ago Boyle confirmed that he would be adapting Porno and that he was eager to shoot it. For those who haven’t read Welsh’s follow up, it’s set ten years after the events of Trainspotting and focuses on the main characters Begbie, Renton, Spud and Sick Boy, only this time set against the porn industry as opposed to heroin addiction. Check out what Boyle had to say on the film when he spoke about it a year ago.
Oh, it’s gonna be so different. The idea of it is that take the same actors, playing the same characters, in the same time, so all that’s the same – but they’re forty. It’s middle aged and that’s what it becomes about. Like when you’re twenty you think you can do anything with your body basically, the risks you take. When you look back at what you’ve done you think oh my god and they hit forty and they can’t do that anymore.
And it’s triggered by Begbie, the Robert Carlyle character comes out of jail. So you can keep him in jail for five years, ten years, fifteen, whatever the story needs. And in the book he escapes from jail. Very funny and very crazy and then he re-ignites the whole chain of friendship if you like, but they are now different guys trapped like so many people are really, trapped in their hometown.
It would also be about the audience who first saw the film cause they also would have aged and all those questions about am I gonna have kids, who am I gonna live with, what am I gonna do in my life, am I getting ill, all those things, it becomes about that. So it actually could be a really boring film, (laughs) the complete opposite of Trainspotting!
Speaking to The Playlist at SXSW, Boyle confirmed the 2016 shoot and also noted that John Hodge, who wrote Trance, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, A Life Less Ordinary and The Beach, is currently working on the screenplay for Porno.
“This has been a long time coming,” he said. “There’s always been this long term plan for ‘Trainspotting 2,’ if John can produce a decent enough script, I don’t think there will be any barriers to Ewan or any of the cast coming back,” he said. “I think they’ll wanna know that the parts are good so they don’t feel like they are letting anyone down. The reason for doing it again is that people cherish the original, people remember it or have caught up with it if they never saw because they were younger. So you want to make sure you don’t disappoint people,” he continued. “That will be the only criteria I think. It’s very loosely based on ‘Porno.’ There’s a couple of things that are based on the book, but obviously we’d have to have Irvine on board.”
Moving on from Porno, Boyle also noted that he has two more films in the works which will be period pieces. He wouldn’t give any details on either project but he did say the following:
“We’re working on two period pieces at the moment, but they won’t be like, ‘Downton Abbey’ period movies,” he said. “They’re like… they’re interesting. They’ve arisen very naturally. I never thought I’d do a period piece. It’s weird the way it happens. Maybe because we’re running out of genres,” he chuckled.
So there you have it. Boyle has the Trainspotting sequel, Porno, as well as two period pieces in the works, very exciting news. I personally love Boyle, and his style of filmmaking. His movies are kinetic, exciting and always offer a visceral thrill and sense of exhilaration found in few other films. Trainspotting is one of my all time favourites and I’ve been eager for a sequel for a long time, so it’s great to hear that the ball is finally starting to roll on this one.
What do you think? Are you looking forward to seeing a Trainspotting sequel?
