It’s been a long time coming but development on the Trainspotting sequel is now firmly underway. Nearly twenty years after the original movie released, director Danny Boyle once again returns to helm this sequel – currently still known as Trainspotting 2 – along with the original film’s main cast; Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Ewan Bremner, and Johnny Lee Miller, all confirmed. Boyle has also confirmed via Facebook that filming has begun in Edinburgh.
McGregor has expanded on that, offering his opinion on the Trainspotting sequel script. With the movie set to go into full production this May, McGregor has said that although the wait for the movie has been long, he was not interested in making the sequel – partly based on Trainspotting novelist Irvine Welsh’s follow up novel, “Porno”, until recently.
Here is what McGregor offered Collider on the matter, when he was interviewed during the promotional tour for the upcoming Miles Ahead:
“It’s been 10 years since Irvine Welsh wrote the sequel novel, Porno, so it’s been a long time, a lot of speculation. For me, too! 10 years ago, I didn’t want to do it; I wasn’t ready to do it. Also, there was no script.”
Elements of “Porno” have been adapted into a screenplay by John Hodge, who has a long history of working with Boyle and McGregor; he wrote the screenplays for Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, A Life Less Ordinary as well as The Beach, which famously did not feature McGregor, leading to a fall out between actor and director. But things were settled, and McGregor adds that it was the strength of Hodge’s script that convinced him, and other cast members, to board the sequel.
“The script only arrived very recently, which was really, really, really good. I think, if that had not happened, none of us would be into it. I think we’re all sort of somewhat protective of what Trainspotting means to people, and what it means to us. None of us want to make a poor sequel to it. So had we not been presented with the most extraordinary script, which we were, I think we wouldn’t be making the sequel. But because we were, we are.”
While no confirmations of the story line have been made, “Porno” follows Sick Boy (Miller) as he returns to Edinburgh and tries to make a porn movie with the help of Mark Renton (McGregor). However, Begbie (Carlyle) is newly released from prison, and determined to get revenge by sabotaging Sick Boy’s plans. Whether that will unfold exactly in that way on film, remains to be seen, but it does seem a good bet that the movie will loosely follow that plot, at least.
Still to be confirmed for Trainspotting 2 is Kelly MacDonald, who played Diane, but she is said to be ‘very keen’ on being involved and if that happens, it would be a full house (Tommy, played by Kevin McKidd, died in the original movie). It seems as though the original cast and crew still hold Trainspotting as dear as most of the general public do – and with McGregor’s high praise of the script, and a release date of ‘early 2017’ being touted, it looks as though Trainspotting fans have a lot to look forward to.
There is no official release date yet for Trainspotting 2, but we will keep you updated with progress on the sequel as it develops.
