More than two decades after the premiere of cult classic ‘28 Days Later,’ director Danny Boyle is back with a third installment in the series. And it’s a case of art imitating life in the film.
The stars, including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, and Alfie Williams, along with Boyle, stepped out on Wednesday for the world premiere in London and fielded questions about the film after living through the real-world rage virus post-pandemic. Boyle says the release of this film is perfect timing.
“We’ve been through a couple of extremely traumatic public crises, one medical one – COVID- and one political, Brexit,” the British director said. “The amazing thing about horror films is that you can put the transparencies of traumatic public events like that in front of or behind a horror film, and you read them through it, without the film being political or about those issues directly, you still read it in them.”
Boyle added, “It’s a good time to do it for sure. We’ve made a pretty extreme horror film, but it can’t compete with what goes on in the world really.”
In ‘28 Years Later,’ we catch up with the characters almost three decades after the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory. And the zombie sequel seems to write itself with inevitable parallels to 2020’s coronavirus spread.
Jodie Comer opened up about the “joy to be a part of” the beloved horror franchise from 2002 starring Oscar winner Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris.
“Obviously, when you’re coming on board with something that is so well loved, there’s an expectation,” the actress said. “Cillian was so loved, you think, okay, what am I going to contribute to this? But it’s amazing to see how the story’s progressed and how the creators have still stayed so true to form but have broadened the world.”
With humanity’s future at stake, Comer also shared how she felt scared while filming scenes.
“You’re kind of hysterical, running through barren landscapes in Northumberland, sometimes drone shots as well, so you don’t actually have a lot of camera crew around you.”
Comer continued, “So do feel like you’re just left within the world,” the actress said. “We just had to react to the real thing, you know, there was no CGI, there is no green screen, so that was such a gift for us.”
“28 Years Later” is in theaters starting June 20th.
