2016 marks twenty years since the release of Trainspotting, the Danny Boyle directed tale of a group of heroin addicts living in a deprived part of Edinburgh in the late 1980s. Based on novelist Irvine Welsh’s book of the same name, Trainspotting helped launch the careers of Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, and Johnny Lee Miller and is now considered a cult classic.
While rumors of a sequel floated around ever since the films release, things only really got into motion in the latter half of 2015, when Danny Boyle confirmed that he was making Trainspotting 2 (as it is currently known) his next project after Steve Jobs. Boyle also confirmed the involvement of original cast members McGregor, Miller, Carlyle, and Ewan Bremner, and said he was hopeful that the movie could make it to the big screen by the end of 2016, its twentieth anniversary year.
True to his word, Boyle has wasted no time in getting the project off the ground, confirming on the official Humans of Edinburgh Facebook page, that he has started filming Trainspotting 2 in the city already.
“We’re up in Scotland filming Trainspotting 2 just now. I think what I love most about what I do is the variety, and…Posted by Humans of Edinburgh on Wednesday, March 9, 2016
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Previously, Boyle confirmed that the script for the movie is finished, and that it is loosely based on the events from Welsh’s follow-up novel, Porno, but that it will not share the same title. In that book, Sick Boy (Miller) returns to Edinburgh to make a porn movie, with the help of Mark Renton (McGregor). Things take a turn for the worse when Begbie (Carlyle), who is fresh out of prison, finds out about Sick Boy’s plans from Spud (Bremner).
Another original Trainspotting cast member, Kelly MacDonald, who played Diane, is also rumored to be strongly considering a return to the franchise, which seems to hold dear with all those concerned. McGregor became involved in a very public falling out with Boyle after he gave the lead role in The Beach to Leonardo DiCaprio, but the pair have long since reconciled and McGregor happily came back on board.
Things seem to be moving apace with this sequel, which as of September 2015 still had no funding or distribution confirmed. Welsh had said filming would start in May, so the project has got going two months quicker than planned. That said, a 2016 release date still seems highly ambitious, but with such an invigorated cast on board, who knows what could happen? One thing is for sure, though: fans of the original movie will be very excited by this progression, and eagerly awaiting the arrival of Trainspotting 2.
Trainspotting 2 has no official release date, but we’ll let you know as soon as that changes.
