Danny Boyle puts third 28 Years Later film 'on the back burner'

Danny Boyle has put the third 28 Years Later film "on the back burner at the moment."

Speaking at the BFI London Film Festival on 9 October in a public conversation with Puck's Matt Belloni, Boyle said the sequel is not a current priority, according to Variety. The comment resets expectations for a trilogy that many viewers assumed was already rolling.

The script exists. The money does not. Writer Alex Garland has written the screenplay for the third film, but the production still has to finalise financing. That means finding the cash to pay for the shoot, the crew and the post-production work before cameras can turn.

Garland is also occupied elsewhere. He is working as writer and director on A24's adaptation of the video game Elden Ring, which Boyle described as a huge project. Sony released both 28 Years Later and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and the third film was set up in the closing scenes of The Bone Temple.

Boyle had sounded keener in the spring. In May he said he hoped to begin filming the follow-up next year, according to Dread Central. His October remarks point to a slower timetable, with funding still to be secured and his collaborator committed to another large shoot.

Boyle was speaking to promote Ink, his film about Rupert Murdoch, former Sun editor Larry Lamb and the rise of The Sun newspaper in late 1960s England. The story moves away from horror to the British newspaper business, and to how a struggling title was reshaped for a mass readership.

For Ink, Boyle said he did not favour hiring a Margaret Thatcher imitator. Instead the team used artificial intelligence to face-swap Thatcher onto a performer, a technique that maps one person's face onto another actor's movements, according to Variety. He said he declined to seek permission from Thatcher's estate for the depiction. The AI work accounts for about 30 seconds of the film, Boyle told IndieWire.

For fans, this means a longer wait. The opening for the next chapter is in place, the script is written and the director says he wants to make it. What is missing is the financing and a clear window in Garland's diary.