Latest news with #CillianMurphy
Yahoo
44 minutes ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Should you watch '28 Days Later' and '28 Weeks Later' before '28 Years Later'?
All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission. Director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland return to the zombie franchise they kicked off in 2002 with 28 Days Later to offer the franchise's third installment, 28 Years Later. However, the 2007 sequel, 28 Weeks Later, didn't touch on the characters of the first film at all. So, should audiences rewatch these movies before diving into the next chapter of this undead saga? 28 Days Later centered on Jim (Cillian Murphy), a lone man lost in a post-apocalyptic London laid low by the Rage Virus, which has turned humans into flesh-chomping infected. The sequel, 28 Weeks Later, which takes place months after the initial breakout, focuses on a family of four whose reunion sparks a new breakout in a safe zone overseen by the American military. Now, 28 Years Later follows a father (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his 12-year-old son (Alfie Williams), who scour a devastated United Kingdom for resources to bring home to their safe haven of a village. So how do these movies connect? SEE ALSO: Review: '28 Years Later' is a triumphant return, one of the scariest films of the year We'll answer that, and tell you everything you might want to remember before sitting down for 28 Years Later. Fear not — no spoilers for 28 Years Later lie below! The short answer is no. This franchise works as an anthology, with each film focusing on a different family unit, be it Jim and his found family of survivors, the Harris family from the second movie, or Jamie, Spike, and Isla (Jodie Comer) in 28 Years Later. But there are some key details about the Rage Virus and the infected that are helpful to remember going in. Plus, rewatching the prior films is a good way to get amped for 28 Years Later. How better to brace yourself for what Boyle and Garland have brewed for their intense return? To catch up on how to watch them, check out New to Streaming. In 28 Days Later, the story followed London bike messenger Jim (Murphy), who comes out of a coma 28 days after the city has been ravaged by a Rage Virus that's turned mild-mannered citizens into rampaging infected. This film, written by Garland and helmed by Boyle, introduced the Rage Virus, which takes only seconds to transform its victim into a new breed of zombie. Gone is George A. Romero's slow-walking undead. This infected person can run and isn't actually dead, so they can be killed by fairly conventional means — just avoid their infectious blood! Even a dead infected can be dangerous. Plus, they have no fear, throwing themselves full-bodied into any obstacle. So they are scary as hell as they run amok in metro or rural areas. 28 Days Later also introduced Jim's ad-hoc family of survivors, who learn through their rough time with a military squad that the UK has become a quarantine zone, with other nations surveilling to be sure it stays that way. Yet the film ends on a hopeful note, with Jim and his fellow survivors signaling a surveillance plane to show they're alive and uninfected. The sequel's ending, however, is far from hopeful. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and written by Fresnadillo, Rowan Joffé, E.L. Lavigne, and Jesus Olmo, 28 Weeks Later offers flashier slaughter scenes and the inclusion of American military figures played by Jeremy Renner and Rose Byrne. But the focus is once again on a family, this one reunited in a safe zone on London's Isle of Dogs. There, patriarch Don Harris (Robert Carlyle) is eager to reconnect with his children, Tammy (Imogen Poots) and Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton) — and also his wife, Alice (Catherine McCormack), the Typhoid Mary of the Rage Virus. Basically, Alice is infected, but not symptomatic in the way of the rampaging killers. A medic onsite (Byrne) suggests that her DNA could be the key to a cure for the Rage Virus. However, before that science can cook, Alice has a saliva-heavy make-out session with her husband, which sparks a new wave of infection in the safe zone, chasing the kids and their American friends to seek another safe zone. At the film's end, it seems the Harris kids will be OK, swept by helicopter to a safe zone in France. But the film's final image shows the infected swarming up from the underground trains of Paris, revealing the virus has hit mainland Europe. The only possible bit of hope is that young Andy appears to have the same genetic quirk as his mom, having been bitten but not turned. So, could there be a chance at a cure in 28 Years Later? You'll see. 28 Years Later opens only in theaters June 20.
WIRED
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- WIRED
'28 Years Later' Director Danny Boyle Says Shooting on iPhones Let Him Capture 'Startling' Violence
Jun 20, 2025 7:00 AM The British director tells WIRED nimble cameras are ideal for creating apocalyptic vibes and says he doesn't watch zombie movies, despite his massive influence on the genre. Director Danny Boyle at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival in Brussels, Belgium. Photograph: Bernard Rosenberg/Sony Pictures In 2001, Danny Boyle had a problem. To make his new postapocalyptic horror movie, 28 Days Later , he had to capture footage of a then-unknown Cillian Murphy wandering the abandoned streets of London. Shutting down the city wasn't an option for the low-budget production, however, and neither was re-creating it on a studio set. Instead, the 68-year-old director made a surprising choice: He filmed with lightweight, low-resolution Canon digital cameras. The technology, which was cutting-edge at the time, made it possible to record scenes at iconic locations like Westminster Bridge and Piccadilly Circus in under an hour each. It also gave 28 Days Later its unique grainy look that makes the movie stand out even today. Almost three decades later, Boyle faced a similar dilemma. As its title suggests, 28 Years Later takes place exactly 28 years after the initial outbreak of a zombie-like 'Rage Virus.' Abandoned by the rest of the world, a quarantined United Kingdom has returned to its natural state, even as pockets of humans and zombies survive. To bring that vision to life, Boyle once again had to rely on lightweight cameras to film in locations he normally wouldn't be able to. But this time, the location was the untamed wilderness of Northumbria, and the camera was an iPhone. 'Filming with iPhones allowed us to move without huge amounts of equipment,' Boyle tells WIRED. 'A lot of Northumbria looks like it would have looked 1,000 years ago. So we were able to move quickly and lightly to areas of the countryside that we wanted to retain their lack of human imprint.' 28 Years Later is a full-circle moment for Boyle, in more ways than one. The original movie turned its director, best known at the time for dark comedies like Trainspotting , into a genre-hopping auteur. But in the decades since, he has resisted revisiting this postapocalyptic setting, mostly sitting out the 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later . His return, sparked in part by the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought Boyle's vision of an emptied London to life, takes the franchise in some surprising directions that both set up an entire new trilogy and manage to tell a beautiful story about life, death, and the unbreakable bond between parent and child. For Boyle, these were all valid reasons to reexamine the world he created with screenwriter Alex Garland. But there was never going to be a wrong time to make this movie—even if the timing feels particularly prescient in the context of our own apocalyptic reality. 'There has been no diminishing of the appetite for apocalyptic stories,' Boyle says. 'Whether that's because we're in the worst of times, I don't know. Certainly, the horrors of the world have not diminished since we made the first film. If anything, they've gotten worse, and they bleed into the film, whether it's the horrors of war or the horrors of infection.' Ahead of the movie's release, WIRED spoke to Boyle about why now was the perfect time for a sequel, the advantages and drawbacks of shooting on iPhone, and why he couldn't wait 28 actual years to release 28 Years Later . 'Poor Man's Bullet Time' Earlier this month, IGN published a behind-the-scenes look at 28 Years Later , revealing a massive rig capable of pointing 20 iPhone 15 Pro Max cameras (all outfitted with special accessories) at their subject. Speaking to me over Zoom, Boyle explains how this smartphone array, organized in a half-circle, lets the director capture complex action scenes from multiple angles at once. 'It allowed us to do what is basically a poor man's bullet time,' he says, referencing the effect pioneered by The Matrix . But while The Matrix used bullet time to visualize its physics-defying combat, Boyle's goal was to capture the brutality of his world. 'We use it for the violence. It was startling and unexpectedly depicted at times.' Boyle's use of iPhones wasn't limited to those giant rigs. He notes that the Apple device was the 'principal camera' for the film and praises the 'immediacy' of shooting on a smartphone over a traditional movie camera. 'Although it's a recording device, because of people's familiarity with it, actors are slightly different with it,' Boyle says. In some scenes, he even handed an iPhone to the actors and had them film from their perspective. There were some minor disadvantages to this method, Boyle admits, mostly due to Apple's user-friendly camera software. 'You have to override the working system,' the director says. For example, the iPhone's camera automatically focuses on whatever it assumes is the focus of your photo or video. That's a useful feature for snapping quick selfies, but for a film director it's a problem. 'Drama is often not following necessarily where the brightest light or the largest object is,' Boyle says. 'It's where you want the story to be.' These small annoyances were easily outweighed by the many advantages of filming the movie with iPhones, Boyle says. He praises the high resolution of the device, which is capable of shooting at 4K resolution at up to 60 frames per second and allowed him to capture both gorgeous locations and the brutal violence on a camera that weighs a fraction of the ones used to film 28 Days Later . 'It gives you a recording of beauty and nature that was a huge part of what we wanted to contrast the horror with,' he says. Inspired by Covid-19 Boyle never thought the world he depicted in 28 Days Later would become a reality. Then, a global pandemic swept across the world. 'You saw cities emptied overnight in a way that one would have thought unimaginable outside a movie,' he says. 'Then it literally happened in people's lives.' But while the global lockdowns of 2020 gave Boyle a sense of déjà vu for 28 Days Later , it was what happened immediately afterward that inspired him to make a sequel. 'The big discovery was thinking about our own behavior after Covid,' Boyle says. In the first weeks or months of the pandemic, you probably washed your hands for a full 20 seconds every time you got home, and you wore a face mask outside. You might have even sanitized your groceries. But as lockdown dragged on, you likely stopped some, if not all, of that behavior. 'You start to take risks over time,' Boyle says. 'It was something we could all relate to. We all had stories.' Boyle and Garland applied that same thinking to the world of 28 Years Later . Their sequel follows a community living on an island off the northeast coast of England and connected by a single causeway that floods each night with the tides. The community of Holy Island (a real place in the UK) manages to keep out the Rage Virus completely, and, over the years, they begin to explore the mainland, despite the inherent dangers. 'Twenty-eight years after an infection, there would be risk-taking,' Boyle says. 'There'd be enormous amounts of risk-taking, because they'd have worked out the parameters of how far they can go and still stay safe.' He brings up the dangers of getting the virus if the blood of an infected enters your body: 'In the original movie, if you got a fleck of blood on you, you were hacked to death by your fellow survivors. Whereas in this one, they can operate. That was really interesting, and that came out of Covid for us.' The Legacy of 28 Days Later In the 22 years since Boyle's genre-redefining movie, zombie storytelling has changed dramatically, thanks in large part to screenwriter Garland's vision for fast-moving Infected. (In interviews, Garland has revealed he drew inspiration from the zombie dogs in the Resident Evil video games.) Subsequent movies like World War Z , Zombieland , and Train to Busan all borrowed liberally from 28 Days Later . But while Boyle is proud of his influence on the zombie film landscape, he's mostly abstained from watching any of those movies himself. 'I've tended to stay away from them,' the director says. 'I always thought it was useful that Alex was an expert and I wasn't. That was a good dynamic in the way we'd approach the films. You have to be careful about either being too reverential or too avoidant. They're both equally dangerous instincts.' Boyle adds that he relied on Garland to warn him when 28 Years Later felt too similar to another zombie movie, while admitting that the writer also took some inspiration from more recent additions to the genre. 'I know he's an enormous admirer of The Last of Us game,' Boyle says. 'In fact, I think that was influenced by 28 Days Later . One hand washes the other, in that respect.' Ultimately, 28 Years Later is just one of many movies pushing the zombie genre forward through both storytelling and technological innovations. And while the wait for a proper sequel has been long and winding, it appears to be arriving at the exact right time. Then again, as my time with Boyle comes to a close, I can't help but wonder why he didn't wait a few more years until 2031, when the film's title would have literally described the span of time between the original and its overdue follow-up. When I pose the question, Boyle's answer reveals his unique perspective—dark, witty, and unmistakably British—that made the franchise a hit all those years ago. 'It would have been cute, as the Americans say, and very neat for marketing, but I couldn't guarantee I'd still be alive by then,' he says with a wicked smile. 'So we thought we should move now, just in case.'
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
As Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes take centre-stage in 28 Years Later, what happened to the cast of the original 28 Days Later?
More than two decades after Danny Boyle and Alex Garland masterminded 28 Days Later, they have at last returned. The much-anticipated 28 Years Later was released in UK cinemas on Friday after being praised by a host of industry critics following early screenings. Dubbed the 'best post-apocalyptic horror-thriller I have ever seen' by The Daily Mail's Brian Viner, Boyle and Garland assembled a star-studded cast for their latest endeavour. Ralph Fiennes puts on a 'scene-stealing' performance as Dr. Kelson while fellow Brit Aaron Taylor-Johnson is 'marvelous' as Jamie, the father of the movie's young protagonist Spike (Alfie Williams). But watching the movie's incredible cast make their debut in Boyle and Garland's franchise brings back memories of a little-know Cillian Murphy waking up alone in a London hospital some 23 years ago in the original 28 Days Later. Long before winning his Oscar, Murphy shot himself to stardom with his performance as bicycle courier Jim in the 2002 blockbuster. It wasn't just Cillian who went on to enjoy huge success following the original movie, with fellow castmembers Naomie Harris and Christopher Ecclestone too becoming stars. But as the franchise returns, what became of the rest of the 28 Days Later cast? MailOnline has all the answers. Cillian Murphy as Jim Cillian Murphy got his breakthrough as the lead in 28 Days Later. He played Jim, a bicycle courier who survived the Rage Virus outbreak while in a coma in hospital - waking up to a decimated London. The role was actually written for Ewan McGregor, but the Scottish actor turned it down, opening the door for Murphy - a relative unknown. Three years later, Murphy appeared in the first of a hugely successful set of films with director Christopher Nolan as Scarecrow in Batman Begins. Speaking to Josh Horowitz for the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the actor revealed that Nolan was convinced to cast him in the role after watching 28 Days Later. Speaking to Josh Horowitz for the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the actor (seen in the 2002 film, left) revealed that Christopher Nolan was convinced to cast him in Batman Begins after watching 28 Days Later - a relationship which eventually resulted in Murphy winning an Oscar in 2024 for his role in Oppenheimer (right) Murphy and Nolan went on to collaborate again a further five times: The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Dunkirk (2017) and Oppenheimer (2023). World War II biopic Oppenheimer landed it's lead a first ever Oscar as Best Actor, in one of seven gongs for the movie at the 2024 Academy Awards. Away from his work with Nolan, Murphy 's star rose astronomically as lead Thomas Shelby in BBC drama Peaky Blinders. Not forgetting his roots, Murphy told The Independent in January 2024 that he would join Boyle's 28 Days Later Sequel 'in a flash' if asked. However, in 28 Weeks Later, Jim's whereabouts are unknown, although it is presumed that he survived and is residing somewhere in Europe. Naomie Harris as Selena Noamie Harris was another who enjoyed a breakthrough performance in 28 Days Later (left), winning the Black Reel Outstanding Breakthrough Performance Award. Pictured right on April 23, 2024 Naomie Harris starred as the female lead in 28 Days Later - Selena, another survivor of the Rage Virus. She comes across Jim as he is escaping the infected in London and takes him to a hideout in the London Underground. Like Murphy, Harris was something of an unknown in 2002 and this performance earned her the Black Reel Outstanding Breakthrough Performance Award. In the following years she starred in Pirates Of The Caribbean and James Bond movies Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015) before starring in the acclaimed 2016 movie Moonlight. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars, BAFTAs, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards for her role as Paula in the drama. Since then, Harris reprised her now-synonymous role as Moneypenny in No Time To Die (2021). Christopher Eccleston as Major Henry West Christopher Eccleston was comparatively established in 2002 after starring in Shallow Grave (1994), but he went on to appear more in TV. Pictured as Major Henry West in 28 Days Later (left) and at the premiere of 2024's True Detective (right) Three years after the film's release, Eccleston took up the daunting undertaking of bringing Doctor Who back to British TV screens for the first time in nearly a decade, but in award-winning fashion Christopher Eccleston was comparatively established in 2002, having already starred in Shallow Grave (1994), The Others (2001) and Our Friends In The North (1996). The English actor appears in 28 Days Later as Major Henry West - commander of the military unit which takes the protagonists hostage. Three years after the film's release, Eccleston took up the daunting undertaking of bringing Doctor Who back to British TV screens for the first time in nearly a decade, but in award-winning fashion. Although he left the iconic role after one series, he stayed mainly in television, appearing in The Leftovers (2014-2017), True Detective (2024) and 2011 TV film The Borrowers. Eccleston has also continued to make regular stage appearances, playing leading roles in Hamlet, Macbeth and A Christmas Carol since filming 28 Days Later. David Schneider as unnamed scientist David Schneider made his name as a comedy actor in the 1990s, appearing in shows like The Day Today (1994), Mr Bean (1994) and various Alan Partridge spinoffs alongside Steve Coogan. In 28 Days Later, however, he performed the role of a scientist who worked at the Primate Research Centre where the Rage Virus was developed. A group of animal rights activists captured the scientist when they freed a captive chimpanzee, letting the infection into the wild. Since 2002, Schneider's best-known work has come as a writer, working with acclaimed director Armando Ianucci on The Death Of Stalin (2017). Noah Huntley as Mark British actor and model Noah Huntley was 28 when he appeared in 28 Days Later as Mark (left) who helped the protagonist seek refuge at the start of the film. He is seen right in 2018 at the British Academy Britannia Awards British actor and model Noah Huntley was 28 when he appeared in 28 Days Later as Mark - who alongside Selena helped the protagonist seek refuge at the start of the film. Three years later, he appeared as an older Peter Pevensie in The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe. In 2012, he starred alongside Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth in Snow White And The Huntsmen as King Magnus. More recently, he has appeared as Lord Sebastian Alamain in US soap Days Of Our Lives. Brendan Gleeson as Frank Another very successful star of 28 Days Later is Brendan Gleeson, who played Frank - a taxi driver who helped fellow survivors escape the infected. Gleeson had already made strong appearances in Braveheart (1995) and Snapper (1993) before the dystopian horror, but saved his best work for later in his career. His 2008 appearance in dark comedy In Bruges alongside Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes earned him nominations at the BAFTAs and Golden Globes. The Irish actor won an Emmy for Into The Storm (2009) and also starred in the hugely successful 2022 comedy-drama The Banshees Of Inisherin - again with Farrell. Megan Burns as Hannah Megan Burns was only 16 when she played Hannah - Frank's daughter - in 28 Days Later. However, the actress left acting after the movie to go into music under the name Betty Curse, releasing the rock album Here Lies Betty Curse in 2006, but no more. According to her Instagram, Burns is now an 'artist manager'. Ray Panthaki as Private Bedford Ray Panthaki performed a relatively minor role aged 23 in 28 Days Later - as Private Bedford - but has gone on to big things since. In BBC series Boiling Point (2021), featuring Steven Graham as its lead, Panthaki played Freeman - for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the British Independent Film Awards. The actor was also executive producer of the show, and he has also directed a handful of short films.
The Guardian
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘You'd never make Slumdog today': Danny Boyle on risks, regrets and returning to the undead
The UK is a wasteland in Danny Boyle's new film. Towns lie in ruins, trains rot on the rails and the EU has severed all ties with the place. Some residents are stuck in the past and congregate under the tattered flag of St George. The others flail shirtless through the open countryside, raging about nothing, occasionally stopping to eat worms. You wouldn't want to live in the land that Boyle and the writer Alex Garland show us. Teasingly, on some level, the film suggests that we do. Boyle and Garland first prowled zombie Britain with their 2002 hit 28 Days Later. It was an electrifying piece of speculative fiction, a guerilla-style thriller about an unimaginable world. Since then we've had Brexit and Covid, and the looming threat of martial law in the US … The story's extravagant flights of fancy don't feel so far-fetched any more. 'Yes, of course real world events were a big influence this time around,' Boyle says, sipping tea in the calm of a central London hotel. 'Brexit is a transparency that passes over this film, without a doubt. But the big resonance of the original film was the way it showed how British cities could suddenly empty out overnight. And after Covid, those scenes now feel like a proving ground.' Where Cillian Murphy first walked, the rest of us would soon follow. Tense and gory, 28 Years Later is a fabulous horror epic. I would hesitate to call it a sequel, exactly: it's more a reboot or a renovation; a fresh build over an existing property. Newcomer Alfie Williams plays 12-year-old Spike, who defies his parents (Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and flees the sanctuary of Holy Island for an adventure on the infected mainland. Along the way, he tangles with berserker zombies and smirking psycho-killers, and encounters Ralph Fiennes's enigmatic, orange-skinned Dr Kelson, reputedly a former GP from Whitley Bay. All of which makes for a jolting, engrossing journey; a film that freewheels through a gone-to-seed northern England before crashing headlong into the closing credits with many of its key questions still unanswered. The hanging ending is the point, Boyle explains, because the film is actually the first part of a proposed trilogy. Sony Pictures has put up two-thirds of the budget. The second movie – The Bone Temple, directed by the American film-maker Nia DaCosta – is already in the can. Boyle has plans to shoot the final instalment, except that the future is unwritten and the industry is on a knife edge 'Sony has taken a massive risk,' the director tells me happily. 'The original film worked well in America to everyone's surprise, but there's no guarantee that this one will. It's all because of this guy, [Sony Pictures' CEO] Tom Rothman. He's a bit of a handful, a fantastic guy, runs the studio in a crazy way. He's paid for two films, but he hasn't paid for the third one yet and so his neck's on the line. If this film doesn't work, he's now got a second film that he has to release. But after that, yeah, we might not get to complete the story.' Good directors reflect the times they work in, but they're at the mercy of them, too, hot-wired to the twists and turns of history; up one year and down the next. And so it is with Boyle, who's travelled from the sunny Cool Britannia uplands of Shallow Grave and Trainspotting through the imperial age of Slumdog Millionaire and the London Olympics, right down to the shonky doldrums of today, when a cherished project might collapse under him like an exhausted horse. He's 68 now, and battling to get his films across the line. I don't know why he's so cheerful. Hasn't everything gone to hell? 'Well, I'm an optimist,' he says. 'So I don't despair about things the way I know that a lot of people do. Also I'm slightly more outside the media than you. That allows me a slightly different view on things. And increasingly, as I age, I become more wary of the obsessions of the media. That constant catastrophising and sense of perceived decline.' It's particularly noticeable in the US, he thinks. 'Much of Trump's dominance is undoubtedly down to his appeal to the media. He is so media friendly. His soundbites, everything about him, fit hand in glove with news and entertainment to the point where it's damaging. Whereas in this country, we're quite fortunate. We've dodged the far-right bullet for the moment and we elected Keir Starmer against the tide of what's been happening elsewhere.' He reaches for his tea. 'It could be a lot worse.' In 2012, Boyle devised and directed Isles of Wonder, the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. The show was a triumph: a bumper celebration of British culture that made room for James Bond and the queen, Windrush migrants and the NHS, Shakespeare and the Sex Pistols. 'But my biggest regret was that we didn't feature the BBC more. I was stopped from doing it because it was the host broadcaster. Every other objection, I told them to go fuck themselves. But that one I accepted and I regret that now, especially given the way that technology is moving. The idea that we have a broadcaster that is part of our national identity but is also trusted around the world and that can't be bought, can't be subsumed into Meta or whatever, feels really precious. So yeah, if I was doing it again I'd big up the BBC big time.' He laughs. 'Everything else I'd do exactly the same.' Isles of Wonder has safely passed into legend. These days it's up there with James Bond and the queen. I wonder, though, how history will judge Slumdog Millionaire, his Oscar-winning 2008 spectacular about a ghetto kid who hits the jackpot. Boyle shot the film in Mumbai, partly in Hindi, and with a local crew. But it was a film of its time and the world has moved on. 'Yeah, we wouldn't be able to make that now,' he says. 'And that's how it should be. It's time to reflect on all that. We have to look at the cultural baggage we carry and the mark that we've left on the world.' Is he saying that the production itself amounted to a form of colonialism? 'No, no,' he says. 'Well, only in the sense that everything is. At the time it felt radical. We made the decision that only a handful of us would go to Mumbai. We'd work with a big Indian crew and try to make a film within the culture. But you're still an outsider. It's still a flawed method. That kind of cultural appropriation might be sanctioned at certain times. But at other times it cannot be. I mean, I'm proud of the film, but you wouldn't even contemplate doing something like that today. It wouldn't even get financed. Even if I was involved, I'd be looking for a young Indian film-maker to shoot it.' A waiter sidles in with a second cup of tea. Boyle, though, is still mulling the parlous state of the world. He knows that times are tough and that people are hurting. Nonetheless, he insists that there are reasons to be cheerful. 'Have you got any kids?' he asks suddenly. Boyle has three: technically they're all adults now. 'And I think that's progress. I look at the younger generation and they're an improvement. They're an upgrade.' The director was weaned on a diet of new wave music and arthouse cinema, Ziggy Stardust and Play for Today. He began his career as a chippy outsider and winces at the notion that he's now an establishment fixture. 'It all comes back to punk, really,' he says. 'The last time Lou Reed spoke in public, he said: 'I want to blow it all up,' because he was still a punk at heart. And if you can embrace that spirit, it keeps you in a fluid, changeable state that's more important than having some fixed place where you belong. So, I do try to carry those values and keep that kind of faith.' He gulps and backtracks, suddenly embarrassed at his own presumption. 'Not that my work is truly revolutionary or radical,' he adds. 'I mean, I'm not smashing things to pieces. I value the popular audience. I believe in popular entertainment. I want to push the boat out, but take the popular audience with me.' I suggest that this might be a contradiction. 'Yeah, of course it is,' Boyle says, snorting. 'But I've found a way to resolve it – in my own mind, at least.' If 12-year-old Spike played it safe he'd have stayed on Holy Island beside the reassuring flag of St George. Instead, the kid takes a gamble and charts his own course to the mainland. He's educating himself and embracing a fraught, messy future. He's mixing with monsters and slowly coming into his strength. That's what kids tend to do, Boyle explains. That's why they give us hope. 'Maybe hope is a weird thing to ask for in a horror movie,' he says. 'But we all need something to cling to, whether that's in films or in life.' 28 Years Later is in UK cinemas now
Digital Trends
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
3 great free movies to stream this weekend (June 20-22)
The summer movie season is heating up. Last week, How to Train Your Dragon broke out at the box office on its way to a domestic debut of $83.7 million. This week, two new additions, 28 Years Later and Elio, are expected to score openings of over $20 million. More is on the way, with F1 coming in hot next week. When you're not at the theater, save some money at home by downloading a FAST service. With a FAST service like Tubi or Pluto TV, consumers can stream thousands of movies for free. Speaking of 28 Years Later, one of our picks this weekend comes from the same franchise. Find out which one below. Recommended Videos We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+. 28 Days Later (2002) The Rage Virus returns to the big screen in 28 Years Later, the long-awaited follow-up in the 28 Days Later franchise. Revisit how the world went to hell in 28 Days Later, the sci-fi horror directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. Animal rights activists mistakenly free an infected chimpanzee, who spreads the virus to the humans. The virus then spreads across England, leading to the collapse of civilization. 28 days later, Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up in an abandoned hospital, unaware of what happened. After escaping from several infected, Jim links up with Selena (Naomie Harris) and Frank (Brendan Gleeson), and together, the group embarks on a journey to find a safe haven. There are so many positives about 28 Days Later, but choosing to make the zombies fast-moving might be the film's crowning achievement. Stream 28 Days Later on Pluto TV. Get Out (2017) Jordan Peele is currently one of the most influential voices in the horror genre. In 2017, Peele was still considered a comedian and one-half of Key & Peele. Peele completely shifted the comedic narrative with Get Out, his feature film directorial debut. Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) is a young Black photographer who has been dating the white Rose Armitage (Allison Williams) for five months. Chris reluctantly agrees to accompany Rose to meet her family in upstate New York. Chris has his reservations at first, being one of the only African Americans in a white community. Once Chris notices the other African Americans acting unnaturally, he senses something isn't right and wants to get out. Seeing Get Out in the theaters is one of the most memorable theatrical experiences of the last decade. While you can't play off the emotion of an audience at home, Get Out's twists and tension will still make you squeamish in this groundbreaking psychological thriller. Stream Get Out on Tubi. No Strings Attached (2011) No Strings Attached recycles the popular rom-com trope of two friends contemplating if they have feelings for each other. Not to be confused with Friends with Benefits, No Strings Attached stars Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher as Emma and Adam, friends who agree to have a sexual relationship without emotion. The arrangement gets off to a hot start as Emma and Adam enjoy hooking up with one another. The more time they spend together, the more feelings start to develop, even though they promised never to fall in love. Again, it's a recycled premise. However, Portman and Kutcher are so delightful that it doesn't matter. Their chemistry is so palpable that predictability takes a backseat to enjoyability. Stream No Strings Attached on Pluto TV.
