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WIRED
an hour 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.'
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
28 Years Later OTT release: Danny Boyle's horror thriller may premiere on Netflix in October
28 Years Later OTT release: 28 Years Later, which hit the screens on June 20, has created a great deal of buzz among fans as it is directed by ace filmmaker Danny Boyle. It has also garnered a great deal of attention with its unnerving trailer. The film is currently playing in theatres only, which means it is not available on OTT. However, it will eventually drop on Netflix. 28 Years to premiere on OTT after four months? 28 Years Later, one of the biggest releases of the year, is backed by Sony Pictures. The studio has a deal with the streaming giant Netflix. As such, as part of this arrangement, the horror thriller will premiere on the OTT player after its theatrical run. While this is confirmed, the exact release date isn't. However, previous Sony movies such as The Garfield Movie and Bad Boys: Ride or Die, released on the platform four months after their theatrical release. Given the fact that the timeline has been consistent, one can expect it to land on OTT in October That said, there is a possibility of it landing there even later if it fares well at the box office. This is just what happened when Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse exceeded expectations at the box office and showed up on OTT five months later. About 28 Years later 28 Years Later centres on a new outbreak of the Rage virus nearly three decades after the original one, which takes humanity back into the darkness. A new generation must now withstand this ghost from, the past in its bid to survive. The film is directed by Danny Boyle and stars child actor Alfie Williams in the lead.
Forbes
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
When Is Zombie Thriller '28 Years Later' Coming To Streaming?
Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in "28 Years Later." Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later is now in theaters. When will horror thriller starring Ralph Fiennes, Jodi Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson be available to watch at home? Rated R, 28 Years Later opens in theaters nationwide on Friday. The summary for the film reads, 'It's been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. 'When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers the secrets, wonders and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.' Written by Alex Garland — who collaborated with Boyle on the 2002 horror hit 28 Days Later — 28 Years Later also stars Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, Emma Laird and Jack O'Connell. Currently, the only way you can see 28 Years Later is in theaters, so check your local listings for showtimes. The first stop for 28 Years Later in the home entertainment marketplace will be on digital streaming via premium video on demand. Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is the studio behind 28 Years Later, typically waits for one month to six weeks after opening its films in theaters to make them available on PVOD. A recent example of Sony's digital streaming release pattern is the studio's horror thriller Until Dawn, which debuted on PVOD on May 23, less than a month after it opened in theaters on April 25. However, the Marvel comic book movie Venom: The Last Dance, debuted on PVOD on Dec. 10, 2024, about six weeks after it opened in theaters on Oct. 25. If 28 Weeks Later follows the same release pattern as the two titles above, then viewers can expect the film to arrive on PVOD anytime between July 22 and Aug. 5, since new films on PVOD generally come out on Tuesdays. New films on PVOD are typically available for digital purchase for anywhere between $19.99 and $29.99 or rented for 48 hours for anywhere from $14.99 to $24.99. Typically, new PVOD titles are available on a variety of platforms, including Apple TV, Fandango at Home, Prime Video and YouTube. Since Sony Pictures Entertainment has a deal with the platform to exhibit its films first on streaming video on demand, 28 Years Later will make its SVOD debut on Netflix. It generally takes three to four months from the time a Sony film opens in theaters to the time it arrives on Netflix. Recently, the horror thriller Heart Eyes arrived on Netflix on May 8, just over a month after it opened in theaters on Feb. 7. Venom: The Last Dance, however, arrived on Netflix on Feb. 25, exactly four months after it debuted in theaters on Oct. 25, 2024. If 28 Years Later follows the same pattern, then viewers can expect the film to arrive on Netflix between Sept. 19 and Oct. 24, give or take a few days. While some streaming services like Max generally release new films on its platform on Fridays, Netflix doesn't tend to rely on a specific day of the week to begin streaming new films. Executive produced by 28 Days Later star Cillian Murphy, 28 Years Later is now in theaters.
Forbes
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘28 Years Later' Reviews: Is There Still Life In Zombie Franchise?
"28 Years Later" partial movie poster. Sony Pictures Entertainment Danny Boyle's zombie thriller 28 Years Later, starring Ralph Fiennes, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jodi Comer, is new in theaters this weekend. How are critics reacting to the film? Director Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland (Warfare) reunite for 28 Years Later, more than two decades after the original film in the series, 28 Days Later, was released in 2002. Boyle served as an executive producer on the film's first sequel, 28 Weeks Later, which was released in 2007. The official summary for 28 Years Later reads, 'It's been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. 'When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.' Rated R, 28 Years Later also stars Alfie Williams and Jack O'Connell. The film plays in Thursday previews before it opens in theaters nationwide on Friday. As of Thursday, Rotten Tomatoes critics have given 28 Year Later a 92% 'fresh' rating based on 121 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus reads, '28 Years Later taps into contemporary anxieties with the ferocious urgency of someone infected with Rage Virus, delivering a haunting and visceral thrill ride that defies expectations.' The RT Popcornmeter score, based on verified user ratings, as well as the film's audience summary, is still pending. Amy Nicholson of the Los Angeles Times is among the top critics on RT who gives 28 Years Later a 'fresh' rating, writing in her review summary, 'It's a kooky spectacle, a movie that aggressively cuts from moments of philosophy to violence, from pathos to comedy. Tonally, it's an ungainly creature. From scene to scene, it lurches like the brain doesn't know what the body is doing.' David Ehrlich of IndieWire gives the film a 'fresh' rating on RT as well, writing that 28 Years Later is 'wildly unexpected for a film that's been promised for so long, this tense and tender post-apocalyptic drama contends that to exist in denial of death is to corrupt the integrity of life itself.' William Bibbiani of The Wrap also gives the film a 'fresh' rating on RT, writing, 'The filmmakers haven't redefined the zombie genre, but they've refocused their own culturally significant riff into a lush, fascinating epic that has way more to say about being human than it does about (re-)killing the dead.' Esther Zuckerman of Bloomberg News is also impressed by 28 Years Later, calling it in her review summary on RT 'one of the strangest, most exhilarating blockbusters in recent memory. It's a truly bizarre piece of art that's somehow both grotesque and extremely moving.' Nick Schager of The Daily Beast also gives the horror thriller a 'fresh' review on RT, writing that 28 Years Later is 'a gripping, unnerving, and altogether thrilling saga that both continues its predecessors' illustrious legacy and initiates what's shaping up to be a promising new horror trilogy.' Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair also praised the film, writing on RT, 'Grim and strange, 28 Years Later finds [Danny] Boyle once again following the irregular rhythms of his brain.' As of this publication, only of RT's top critics — Rafer Guzman of Newsday — gives the second sequel to 28 Days Later a 'rotten' review. Guzman writes in his RT summary, '28 Years Later tries hard to outpace the original film and keep up with the culture at large, but instead, it lumbers slowly behind.' Also starring Erin Kellyman and Emma Laird, 28 Years Later plays in Thursday previews before opening in theaters nationwide on Friday.
Toronto Sun
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Toronto Sun
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland on '28 Years Later' and how COVID influenced long-awaited sequel
'One of the things that the pandemic showed … is how quickly everything can change' Get the latest from Mark Daniell straight to your inbox Screenwriter Alex Garland, left, and filmmaker Danny Boyle have reunited for '28 Years Later' - a sequel to their 2002 thriller '28 Days Later.' Photo by Sony Pictures/ Getty For more than 20 years, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland have fielded questions about their 2002 zombie thriller 28 Days Later and whether they'd ever do a follow-up. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Boyle and Garland joined forces for the first movie that cast Oscar winner Cillian Murphy as one of the lone survivors after a virus outbreak brings death and destruction to London. But the two mostly sat on the sidelines for Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later (though Boyle reportedly shot some sequences on the film and acted as an executive producer). In past interviews with Postmedia, Garland, who became an Oscar-nominated director in his own right helming such films as Ex Machina , Annihilation , Civil War and this year's Warfare , said he had an idea for a third movie, but told us 'someone else would need to write it.' So, it came as a surprise last year when plans were revealed for a new trilogy, the first of which — 28 Years Later — is now playing in theatres. The new films are all written by Garland, 55, and tackle big themes involving grief, evil and redemption. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Garland's initial pitch for the third film sought to take the series in the same direction as the Alien franchise and would have followed the story many years later as military outfits sought to weaponize the 'rage virus' that decimated London in the first film. He scrapped that storyline because 'it was generic.' 'Someone had a crack at it and it didn't quite work,' Garland says of the original concept for 28 Years Later . 'Then I had a crack at essentially writing the same story, and it also didn't work. So, the problem wasn't with the other writer, it was the story.' Alex Garland Photo by Monica Schipper / Getty Images for IMDb Garland then hatched an idea that 'belonged in a spiritual way to the first movie' as it follows a group of uninfected survivors living on a small island connected to the rest of Britain by a single, heavily defended causeway. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The U.K. is quarantined from the rest of Europe, and isolated from the rest of the world. The infected run loose and survivors have been left to fend for themselves. The community is thrown into chaos when a young boy named Spike ( Alfie Williams) travels with his dad (Aaron Taylor Johnson) to the British mainland and learns of a mythical doctor (Ralph Fiennes), who has survived on his own for nearly 30 years and could help his dying mother (Jodie Comer). Aaron Taylor Johnson and Alfie Williams in '28 Years Later.' Photo by Sony Pictures Spike's odyssey sets in motion a story that will span two other films. On Jan. 16, 2026, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple , a sequel helmed by Nia DaCosta ( The Marvels ) that was shot back-to-back with its predecessor, will hit theatres. If the two films prove to be successful, Boyle, 68, will direct the third and final movie with Murphy set to return to conclude his story arc. The Oppenheimer star produces this new entry and will be reintroduced towards the end of The Bone Temple . This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Boyle, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind such movies as Yesterday and Slumdog Millionaire , says 'there was clearly an appetite' for continuing stories in the 28 Days Later universe. But he and Garland, who also worked together on the 2007 sci-fi thriller Sunshine , were only willing to return if they could tell an original story. 'If we were going to do it, we wanted it to be as original as the first one had been. This first one is indebted to the (George A.) Romero films and the first 28 Days Later . But it stands on its own feet and can be experienced on its own,' he says. Ralph Fiennes in a scene from '28 Years Later.' Photo by Sony Pictures 'It has a completely fresh cast. We didn't need Cillian in the first one … He'll appear towards the end of the second film and he will be in the third movie. But we didn't have to carry on with that character. We could start off fresh. For an apocalyptic movie, that moment of ground zero, that feeling of 'What are we going to begin with?' is a great place to start,' he says. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 28 Days Later was famously shot on digital video, which gave it a documentary feel. The latest film utilizes iPhones – sometimes as many as 20 of them at a time – to immerse audiences in the action. A behind-the-scenes look at one of the multi-iPhone camera rigs on the set of '28 Years Later.' Photo by Sony Pictures With a story that was fuelled by the accidental release of a 'rage virus' that turns those it infects into frantic, blood-thirsty zombies, Garland says the worldwide response to the real-life COVID-19 pandemic allowed them to think about how humanity could easily slip into a kind of normalcy in a post-apocalyptic world. 'One of the things that the pandemic showed … is how quickly everything can change,' Garland says. 'But after the shock of that initial change, you saw how people relaxed, and what they relaxed into in terms of their relationship with risk.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'When (COVID) started, we all wore masks and gloves and disinfected vegetables,' Boyle adds. 'But you can't remain in that state. That was interesting for our story. There's risk taking that you wouldn't necessarily take after 28 days. But after 28 years, you organize a different way of living with the risks and you understand what they are better and how far you can go … That was a big help to us making the film.' 28 Years Later is now playing in theatres. mdaniell@ Read More NHL Soccer Columnists Editorial Cartoons Toronto Maple Leafs
