After 28 Years, 28 Days Later Part 2 Finds a Home at Sony – The Hollywood Reporter

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland

Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images; Monica Schipper/Getty Images

After 28 yearsthe hot package from director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, has arrived at Sony.

The Culver City-based studio took first place after a long bidding war to win the rights to the sequel to the 2002 horror classic. After 28 days.

Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland have reunited to write and direct the sequel, which also comes with a story Part 2, to be written by Garland. Boyle will direct only the first project, with a director for the sequel to be determined at a later stage. Cillian Murphy, whose career was launched by the original film, also returns as executive producer. the Oppenheimer The star is also likely to be involved in the project, although details are under quarantine.

WME, which represents Boyle and Garland, released the package to Hollywood studios and streaming companies about three weeks ago, generating immediate interest and intense traction. In the end, the bidding went to Warner Bros. And Sony. The idea of ​​the original creators returning to helm a sequel or two has been compared by some to George Miller’s return to Mad Max in 2015. Road of anger.

Transaction details are not available. The budget for each film will be in the $60 million range, but it’s unclear how goals or compensation changed during the high-stakes negotiations. The theatrical release was of great importance to the filmmakers.

The duo will also produce, as will original producer Andrew MacDonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, a division of the Twentieth Century Fox studio that originally backed the British-made film and its sequel. Bernie Bello is also producing.

Sony had a unique weapon at the auction: a more than 30-year-old relationship between studio head Tom Rothman and Boyle. Rothman founded Fox Searchlight in the 1990s and also ran Fox’s film division in the early 2000s, working with Boyle on eight films, ranging from A less ordinary life And the beach (which was Boyle’s first collaboration with Oscar-winning Garland). the homeless milionaire And 127 hours.

For more than 20 years, Boyle and Garland have collaborated on this After 28 daysthe film that revitalized the zombie genre, paving the way for titles like the walking Dead, World War Z and Zombieland, The last of us, For example but not limited to. Murphy starred as a man who awakens from a coma, alone in a hospital, to discover that the outside world has been overtaken by the undead 28 days earlier. The 2002 film grossed $82.7 million worldwide and spawned a sequel in 2007. 28 weeks Later, though, Boyle and Garland were only nominally involved as executive producers.

The duo have long talked in the press about doing a sequel. At some point, the idea was for a movie called After 28 monthsBut enough time has passed since that After 28 years It became the new idea.

In the intervening years, both Boyle and Garland’s Hollywood stock has only risen. Boyle went on to direct the Best Picture winner the homeless milionairewhile Garland became director of features such as machine exconsidered a modern sci-fi classic, and an upcoming A24 film Civil war.