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By the time director Danny Boyle and wordsmith Alex Garland teamed up to bring to audiences the zombie film 28 Days Later back in 2002, the genre which such pioneers as George Romero and Lucio Fulci had brought kicking and screaming into the mainstream seemed to be, if not entirely dead, on life support. That visceral adrenaline kick which Romero had delivered in spades with the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead felt altogether forgotten by a world which seemed nigh desensitized from an overabundance of violent video games and nonstop internet immersion. Enter 28 Days Later, a neat reinvention of the genre which harkened back to Richard Matheson’s down-and-dirty lone man against the evil and undead world in the 1954 novel I Am Legend. The premise which Boyle and Garland reintroduced was certainly simple enough: A young man named Jim (an outstanding Cillian Murphy) wakes up in a London hospital with no memory of how he got there. As he begins wondering about the hospital halls and the city streets, everything is desolate and empty. Or is it? It’s not too long before our intrepid hero discovers that the world has apparently been overrun by “the infected”, a ravenous and rabid lot of mindless humans who, for all intents and purposes, fit the classic profile of zombies.
28 Days Later was a surprise hit at the box-office and ultimately inspired a standalone follow-up entitled 28 Weeks Later which carried the story from the original film forward, sans original star Murphy and director Boyle and writer Garland.
With the recent news that Danny Boyle would return to direct a new sequel to his original 2002 classic 28 Days Later – this one entitled 28 Years Later – along with original scribe Alex Garland once again providing the scary and thought provoking words, the big question on everyone’s mind has been whether or not the star of that first film would also return to pick back up where he left off with his audience favorite character of Jim. Actually, Murphy is back in a producing role for the new film, but what about actually starring in the new flick? Have the recent plaudits for his award-worthy turn in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer made him turn up his nose at the prospect of returning to a role he began back in 2002?
From our Dawn of the Dead mavens over at Variety comes some illumination on whether or not star Cillian Murphy will once again find himself fighting the dreaded infected in Danny Boyle’s upcoming sequel 28 Years Later (another sequel is also planned, with Garland still writing, but Boyle stepping back from the director’s chair and making way for some – you’ll pardon the expression – new blood).
In a recent freewheeling conversation for SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s Conversations program, Oscar-nominated actor Cillian Murphy gave a resounding “I’m available” when asked about the possibility of reprising his 28 Days Later character of Jim for the upcoming sequel. This echoes what Murphy told media outlet The Independent a short while back: “I would be there in a flash. I made two movies with both of those guys, and I would love to work with them again. Of course, I’m there.”
Though there would probably be many-a story ideas for the new sequel that could be intriguing without Murphy’s return, we’re card-carrying members of the Cillian Murphy fan club and count his work in 28 Days Later nothing short of bravura and breathtaking. That’s our way of sending an S.O.S. to Hollywood screaming to make Murphy’s return in front of the camera for the new film a reality…Stay tuned for any and all updates, White Zombie aficionados!
