The long-awaited Trainspotting sequel will feature the original gang of characters reuniting and getting involved in the vice industry.
Author Irvine Welsh promises that the much-loved characters Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud will find a “very innovative” way to be involved in vice, a term generally used in reference to prostitution, pornography, or drugs.
Speaking to Vice about the history of Trainspotting and its future, Welsh said of the sequel: “It’s very much telling a story about Edinburgh as it currently is. The main element to the story is basically Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud getting back together again, and it tells the story of them getting involved in the vice industry in a very innovative way.”
READ MORE: Trainspotting 2: Everything We Know So Far About Danny Boyle’s Upcoming Sequel
PressThe sequel will be based on Welsh’s novel Porno but won’t be exactly the same, as the writer explains. “We’ve had to evolve past that, because the actors would have been ten years older when Porno came out, and now they’re 20 years older. It has to take into account that reality.”
Meanwhile, Kelly MacDonald was interviewed in the same piece and revealed that she too could return as her character Diane.
“I’m in talks, I’ve read the script,” she said. “I don’t know how much I can talk about it, to be honest. It would be so interesting to work with the same people, and everyone will have changed, but I definitely know how to stand on a marker now.”
Director Danny Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge return alongside all of the original title’s principal cast, Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner and Robert Carlyle, for the sequel to the 1996 original. Filming begins soon with an eye to hitting cinemas in 2017.
Boyle recently admitted that the prospect of making Trainspotting 2 is “worrying” because, as director, he will get “absolutely crucified” if it is a bad film.
Giving an update on the sequel at the London premiere of his latest film, Steve Jobs in October, Boyle was quoted as saying: “We’re going up to Scotland very early and we’re going to do a week’s workshop up in Edinburgh working on the script. And we’re filming in May and June of next year.”
“Obviously it’s worrying because people will kill us if we made a bad job of it. I will get absolutely crucified,” he added. “But you have to thrive on that potential danger within it and if it feeds into it, you might get a decent film out of it, you know.”
Boyle also reassured fans that he is aiming to have the sequel ready in time for Trainspotting‘s 20th anniversary next year, saying: “Hopefully we can get it finished in time to release it in 2016 which is the 20th anniversary year. So yes, we’re on it, and it’s looking good.”