Director Danny Boyle is taking in the sights at SXSW this week (Renn’s doing his due diligence as well) and promoting his new film Trance. The subject of a Trainspotting sequel was seemingly brought up during the Trance junket because it always gets brought up. And with good reason – Irvine Welsh, writer of the original Trainspotting novel on which the film was based actually wrote a sequel, Porno (buy it here), in 2003. If Boyle were so inclined to revisit Rents, Spud and Begbie, the progenitor exists.
And now it’s on record from Boyle himself. Here’s what The Playlist was able to coax out of the filmmaker:
“This has been a long time coming. There’s always been this long term plan for Trainspotting 2, if John [Hodge] can produce a decent enough script, I don’t think there will be any barriers to Ewan [McGregor] or any of the cast coming back. 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. That will be the only criteria I think.”
Count me among the above-mentioned cherishers of the original Trainspotting. It’s such a complex work, filled with equal amounts optimism against hopeless despair. It’s funny, heart-wrenching, provocative; and to this day it’s still my favorite of Boyle’s works. The seminal film also provided a coterie of performers that continues making waves today – names like Ewan McGregor, Johnny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle and Kevin McKidd.
Boyle indicates that 2016, 20 years after the original film, would be prime setting for a followup loosely based around Welsh’s sequel. The Oscar-winning director seems optimistic he can get his players back. If the story’s right and worthy, I have no doubt he’ll accomplish exactly that.
8 comments
Didn’t Boyle and McGregor have some sort of falling out? Something about not getting cast in something, or something. Did they patch things up? Or was I remembering wrong?
I do think there was a reported falling out after DiCaprio was cast in The Beach. Hopefully this all comes together, I’d love to see it.
They would definitely have to make some alterations to the sequel in order to give Ewan McGregor a bigger role. Mark Renton barely shows up until like 3/4 of the way through the book. That being said, the book is pretty great, though even Welsh admits that after the movie was made that it was difficult for him to see the charaters as he originally wrote them, as the film colored his vision of what they originally were. As a result, the book is actually more a sequel to the movie, than the original book.
Basically, Boyle fucked McGregor over. When DiCaprio became interested the budget went up, and rather than fight McGregor’s corner, Boyle went ahead and made the film. In retrospect, McGregor dodged a bullet because The Beach turned out to be a clusterfuck (easily both Boyle and DiCaprio’s worst film – unless you count Titanic heh heh).
If i remember rightly, Sick Boy is the main character in Porno, which follows his efforts to make porn films in the back room of his pub. The prequel Skagboys was an horrendous mess which stripped any sympathy you might have had for these characters. Sick Boy especially carries out some pretty obscene behaviour regarding a young girl he befriends(pimps out).
Irvine Welsh’s best book Filth has been filmed. It stars James Mcavoy as the corrupt drug addled cop Bruce. God knows when it’s getting released though..anyone know?
I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a very loose adaptation of the book, Boyle has gone on record that he didn’t really like Porno.
I respect Danny Boyle as a filmmaker, but this hacks me off to no end. He’s been stringing along this idea for years, even before his half-ass reconciliation with McGregor. And given the public nature of his fallout with Ewan, it always struck me as rather tasteless for him to publicly assume Ewan would be gung-ho return – he’s been stating as much even before they made up (which, coincidentally, Ewan initiated because he’s a classy guy). Plus Ewan has gone on record that he didn’t like Porno at all, didn’t feel it was a worthy sequel to Trainspotting, and has been very protective of the film’s legacy.
Danny Boyle seems a very likeable guy (and there’s no doubt he’s an incredible director), but his treatment of Ewan has always struck me as rather shabby and cavalier – even more so considering how warmly Ewan has always spoken of him.
In the book, Renton is the only one of the gang who has become a true success …kinda like Mcgregor has compared to the others. Scenes in which he lords it over the rest of the cast would be interesting!
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