Danny Boyle: “In 28 years after two things we wanted to insert absolutely: Brexit and Teletubbies”

28 years laterthird film of a trilogy open in 2002 from Danny Boyle And Alex Garlandwhose couple returns after entrusting the 2007 sequel to Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 weeks later), is in turn the first title of a new trilogy of which the director of Trainspotting He has already shot the second chapter. “For the third we are looking for the fundsin case someone wants to help us », jokes the manchester filmmaker sly as he presents the film in Rome, returning to the big screen after the last Yesterday of 2019. «It wanted time before returning to the world of 28 days later. It is a film that is still very seen and loved, but with Alex we decided that we would only work on it again if he had a strong idea in which to invest energy. In the end, when it arrived, two things we wanted to insert absolutely: Brexit and Teletubbies».

It is in fact with the British television program for children who opens 28 years laterbefore immersing us on an island in which a small community separated from the monstrous creatures known with previous films lives, which further evolved in the third film. A small village of which Spike’s protagonists are part of it, The young Alfie Williams born in 2011and the parents Isla and Jamie, played by Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. A family within a status quo that Garland and Boyle wanted to recall and that they explored from a social point of view: «Spike’s journey is the journey of the film itself. We wanted to have a horror, but also talk about family and changes that it can also undergo collectively. The father expects his son to follow the footsteps, so we went to set the structure of a village with The mentality of the England years fifty in which men and women had separate roles. Here we have inserted Brexit: in males who go to hunt, while women do anything else. An old country from which the protagonist comes out, finding its way that, in the film, represents progress ».

28 years later: how was it shot?

Danny Boyle cannot exempt himself from praising his actors – including Ralph Fiennes In the role of a peculiar doctor – noting how young interpreters seem much more prepared than colleagues from the past: «Almost twenty years ago for The Millionaire We had made casting for the role of the protagonist boy, but it is incredible how the acting changed among the very young actors. I think it was the effect of the Harry Potter saga, seeing those films made them say: why can’t I do it too? ». In addition to noticing as the imagination of deserted London of 28 days later it could not be replicated for a third film, After a post-covid world Where the suggestion of the empty metropolis was for a short period reality: «Covid forced us to change our horizon, which includes the same virus of the film. After so many years the survivors are not only hidden from it, but they are looking for risk ». Anger, on the other hand, has not changed so much, with the virus that makes people a fury going from zero to one hundred, a feeling that we often find ourselves living even in everyday life. And the fault, according to Boyle, would reside in technologyalthough it was the fundamental tool for the aesthetic and productive frame of 28 years later.

“We used many iPhones,” says the director by remembering the experience on the set. «Even many read -based cars. We didn’t want anything heavy since we had to move within a wonderful nature. For this we have also used various drones: We sent the actors on stage and then resumed them with those ». Boyle’s intention was to find something that was visually new: «The first film had been made entirely digitally and was the first of that kind to have a large distribution. Over time, technology has evolved, even even the phone can turn in 4K. So we experienced, even if we came across several problems. With the crew it was complicated. A director can make a film every two or three years, the crews are on the sets continuously, therefore it is normal to tend to be placed on formulas that already know each other and are tested. We have placed the crew in front of challengesdestabilizing it sometimes. However, it was stimulating to fight this resistance to change, which perhaps does not produce perfection, but which is not even what interests us. We are looking for what is in the middle, in the cracks ».

Between horror and resistance

And if you ask for the real monsters to be afraid of Dannny Boyle today, it replies that you have to wait for the next film to find out, in the meantime the director Find a bulwark in secure information: «I can only talk about my country, but I think we make ourselves more and more every day that there are real figures of resistance among our leaders. People who can be of inspiration are missing and send us forward. There was a time when it was believed that artificial intelligence could become a reference, but it was soon noticed that the business opportunities that it often offers go to the detriment of freedom. So if I had to say to those who believe, at this moment, I would answer the BBC. He has no owners, nor shareholders and is a reality that controls any image and news before publishing it, from what Trump declares to the nefarines of Russian politics ».

The right dose of summer horror is therefore offered by 28 years later by Danny Boyle, in the room from June 18thdistributed by Eagle Pictures.