“28 Years Later” Director Danny Boyle

In 2001, Danny Boyle has a problem. To make his new apocalyptic horror movie, 28 days laterhe had to capture the footage of the then unknown Cillian Murphy wandering through the abandoned streets of London. Closed the city is not an option for low-budget productions, but none of them recreated it in the studio. Instead, the 68-year-old director made a surprising choice: he shot with a lightweight, low-resolution Canon digital camera. The technology was cutting-edge at the time, allowing scenes to be recorded in less than an hour at iconic locations such as Westminster Bridge and Piccadilly Circus. It also gave 28 days later Its unique grainy appearance makes this film stand out even today.

Nearly three decades later, Boyle faces a similar dilemma. As its title suggests, 28 years later It happened 28 years after the outbreak of the original zombie-like “angry virus”. Abandoned by the rest of the world, an isolated UK has returned to its natural state, even if the pockets of humans and zombies survive. To bring this vision to life, Boyle once again had to rely on lightweight cameras to shoot in places he usually couldn’t. But this time, the location is the wilderness of Northumbria and the camera is an iPhone.

“Shooting with iPhone allows us to move without a lot of devices,” Boyle told Wired. “Many Northumbria look like they were 1,000 years ago. So we were able to quickly and gently move to rural areas where we wanted to retain them lacked human imprints.”

28 years later For Boyle, it was a full-circle moment, not one. This original film turns the director into a director, most famous for the dark comedy at the time Train Investigationenter the genre of Auteur. But for decades since, he has refused to revisit this apocalyptic environment, mostly in a 2007 sequel After 28 weeks. His return was triggered by part of the 19th pandemic, which brought Boyle’s vision of emptiness to London.

For Boyle, these are justified reasons to re-examine the world he created with screenwriter Alex Garland. But there is never a wrong time to make this movie – even in the context of our own apocalyptic reality, timing is particularly prescient.

“The appetite for apocalypse stories has not diminished,” Boyle said. “Whether it’s because we’re in the worst times, I don’t know. Of course, the horrors of the world have not diminished since we made the first movie.

Before the movie was released, Wired talked with Boyle about why it is the best time for a sequel, the advantages and disadvantages of shooting on iPhones, and why he can’t wait for 28 years of actual release time 28 years later.

“The Poor Bullet Time”

Earlier this month, IGN published a behind-the-scenes observation 28 years laterrevealing a huge rig that can point to 20 iPhone 15 Pro Max cameras (all with special accessories). Speaking to me on Zoom, Boyle explained how this smartphone array is organized in a semicircle, allowing the director to capture complex action scenes from multiple angles at once.

“It allows us to do bullet time that is basically poor,” he said. matrix. but matrix Boyle’s goal is to use bullet time to visualize his physically violating battles, and is to capture the cruelty of his world. “We use it for violence. It’s sometimes shocking and unexpected portrayal.”