Latest news with #apocalyptic
WIRED
11 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
a day ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
It's too hot to go to school! Climate change making it harder for pupils to learn, dire assessment says
Climate change is making it harder for pupils to learn as they wilt in the heat, Department for Education research says. An official briefing says learning can be 'very difficult' due to the 'one or two days' per year when indoor temperatures reach 35°C. And even on just averagely warm days, the heat could be causing pupils to currently lose seven days of learning per year, it said. However, critics yesterday said hot days should not mean whole sessions of learning written off as 'lost'. They pointed out children in places such as Africa and India make learning a priority in much more prolonged heated conditions, often without air conditioning. Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: 'Children and teachers need to toughen up a bit and get on with it. 'Millions of pupils around the world place the importance of education above personal comfort. 'Going soft on our kids is no way to build the resilience they need to survive in the modern world.' The document was released today as temperatures soared over 30C in some parts of the country. Staff at the Department are now working on ways to make new school buildings resilient to apocalyptic scenarios caused by climate change. The document said global surface temperature levels are already 1.2°C higher than pre-industrial levels, causing one to two days annually of 'extreme heat'. This tally could rise to three days by 2050 and eight days by 2100, if climate change causes the predicted global temperature rises of 2C and 4C respectively. And it said 'more subtle changes in temperature' on 'generally warmer days' could also 'affect the ability to learn'. Taken together, it means seven days are potentially being lost currently, rising to eight days in 2050 and 12 days in 2100. The document says: 'In the longer term, without the implementation of any adaptation measures, students could potentially lose up to 12 days of learning per year on average, as result of generally warmer temperatures and not just from extreme heat.' The document also warned of the threat of flooding and water shortages to schools, which were also listed as 'climate risks'. It said all new school buildings under Labour will be 'designed to be climate resilient'.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jodie Comer says being led by Danny Boyle in 28 Years Later was a ‘proper dream'
Jodie Comer has said being led by director Danny Boyle on the set of 28 Years Later was a 'proper dream'. Comer, who is best known for playing the antagonist Villanelle in the hit BBC series Killing Eve, was speaking at the 28 Years Later world premiere in Leicester Square on Wednesday evening. 28 Years Later is set in the same world as the 2002 apocalyptic horror 28 Days Later, which saw Cillian Murphy play a bicycle courier who awakes from a coma to discover the accidental release of a highly contagious, aggression-inducing virus has caused the breakdown of society. The new instalment follows on almost three decades since the virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, where some have found a way to exist amid the infected despite an enforced quarantine. When one of the group leaves the gated island they are residing on for a mission to the mainland, they discover secrets and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well. Comer features in the film alongside Ralph Fiennes and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Comer said on Wednesday: 'I was honoured when I got this script through. 'And you know, with the opportunity to sit down with Danny, who's a filmmaker who I've admired for a very long time, and to be kind of led by him and be on one of his sets is a proper dream.' She added that Boyle leads a 'calm, playful, fun' set. 28 Years Later will be screened in cinemas from Friday.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jodie Comer says being led by Danny Boyle in 28 Years Later was a ‘proper dream'
Jodie Comer has said being led by director Danny Boyle on the set of 28 Years Later was a 'proper dream'. Comer, who is best known for playing the antagonist Villanelle in the hit BBC series Killing Eve, was speaking at the 28 Years Later world premiere in Leicester Square on Wednesday evening. 28 Years Later is set in the same world as the 2002 apocalyptic horror 28 Days Later, which saw Cillian Murphy play a bicycle courier who awakes from a coma to discover the accidental release of a highly contagious, aggression-inducing virus has caused the breakdown of society. The new instalment follows on almost three decades since the virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, where some have found a way to exist amid the infected despite an enforced quarantine. When one of the group leaves the gated island they are residing on for a mission to the mainland, they discover secrets and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well. Comer features in the film alongside Ralph Fiennes and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Comer said on Wednesday: 'I was honoured when I got this script through. 'And you know, with the opportunity to sit down with Danny, who's a filmmaker who I've admired for a very long time, and to be kind of led by him and be on one of his sets is a proper dream.' She added that Boyle leads a 'calm, playful, fun' set. 28 Years Later will be screened in cinemas from Friday.
Daily Mail
09-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Video reveals horrific danger of EYEBALL tattooing - woman 'blinded' by extreme body modification
A shocking video shows how an OnlyFans model almost lost her eye after an attempt to tattoo it bright yellow went horribly wrong. Mary Magdalene already had the white of her left eye tattooed black, but wanted to get her right eye inked neon green to look like a 'mutant hybrid apocalyptic otherworldly goddess.' However, just hours after the procedure, the yellow ink injected during the process began to clump near her tear duct, and then seeped into her lower eyelids. 'There's a big clump in the corner that isn't spreading—it's like it's stuck there,' she said in a TikTok video that has so far been viewed over 102,00 times. She continued: 'It's completely bruised and completely bloodshot.' 'I don't want them to amputate [sic] my eye for no reason but I woke up just now and have so much light sensitivity in both eyes. I can barely even see.' The Mexican-born influencer, whose real name is Denise, already has most of her body tattooed, having inked her arms and chest pure black last year. In a series of videos following the procedure, Denise asked her followers for advice, as her eye began to swell dramatically until she couldn't see. 'I think I should go to the ER,' she said. 'I don't know if I should wait it out. One second I think it's okay, then the next second I look at it and it looks more swollen to me.' Eventually, after seeking medical advice at a nearby hospital, Denise was given medication to bring down the swelling and was told to return the following morning for further tests on her eye. She claims that doctors warned her that she may have to undergo an enucleation procedure—an operation to remove her entire eye—if her symptoms deteriorated overnight. 'The doctor was really aggressive. He was just saying the most dramatic things like "you're going to need to get your eye removed probably",' Denise recalled. Despite showing no improvement in her symptoms, the model—who charges almost $30 (£22) a month for her explicit content—was hesitant to return to the hospital, in case medics recommended surgery to remove her eye. 'I just don't know what to do,' she said to her followers in one of the clips. 'I'm just nervous to go to the hospital and then they don't know what to do with this type of case and then they're trying to amputate my eye. 'I was feeling optimistic when I woke up today, but I can't open my eye. When I use the doctor's medication, it burns,' she added. Denise then sought a second opinion from an ophthalmologist after she started vomiting and experiencing visual disturbances in both eyes. After four days, however, her vision began to improve and the swelling started to go down. 'When I open [my eye] I can see, but it doesn't stay open it's so swollen,' she shared in an update. Whilst her original plan was to incorporate green and yellow tones to create a 'psychedelic effect', the adult creator will likely have to undergo surgery to drain the excess ink from her eye. This comes following a string of cosmetic procedure that set the OnlyFans model back more than £110,000. In an emotional post, shared in 2023, she admitted that she had been 'trapped in a never ending cycle' of plastic surgery and was constantly going under the knife to fix botched procedures. The model originally rose to fame after getting an illegal procedure to create 'the world's fattest vagina' in a surgery that almost killed her. In 2023 she admitted that maintaining her head-turning aesthetic 'is not worth all the unnecessary stress.' 'It's not a fun little adventure anymore, it's just draining in every possible way,' she said. 'My time gets drained, my bank account, my energy, my health. And in the long run, you just kind of end up digging yourself into a really expensive time-consuming hole.' Experts have previously warned against any procedure which permanently changes the colour of someone's eyes due to the risk of infection and vision changes. This includes corneal tattooing, laser depigmentation and iris implant surgery. Whilst these procedures are sometimes used to treat an eye injury or existing medical condition, when used solely for cosmetic reasons, there are a number of risks to be considered. Dr James Tsai, president of New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, told ABC News: 'These risks can be sight-threatening and can include glaucoma, cataract and corneal problems.' Instead, if you're not happy with the colour of your eyes, specialists recommend contact lenses that can allow the wearer to completely change their eye colour. It comes as shocking research published earlier this year found getting a tattoo could nearly triple your risk of certain cancers. Danish and Finish scientists analysed data from over 2,000 twins, comparing cancer rates in those who inked up versus those who didn't. They found those who had a tattoo were up to 62 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with skin cancer—but those with ink larger than the palm of the hand, were at a significantly increased risk. For these people, the risk of skin cancer increased by a shocking 137 per cent and for lymphoma—a deadly type of blood cancer—the risk soared to 173 per cent. They said their findings were concerning given the rising popularity of tattoos in European nations, particularly among younger generations.
