When Danny Boyle and Alex Garland redefined Zombies with Cillian Murphy in 28 Days Later

Time of India

20-06-2025

'28 Days Later' brought a horrific genre back: the zombies. The movie was two decades ago and starred
Cillian Murphy
as Jim, who was a bicycle courier guy. He discovers that he is among the survivors of an incurable virus that has wiped out the U.K.
after he wakes up from a coma.
How did the idea come to reinvent the genre?
Garland was a fan of George Romero's 1968 'Night of the Living Dead' when he was young. The idea was pitched when he was getting pizza with Andrew Macdonald about the running zombies in London.
Garland tells 'THR' that 'There were five drafts where it was just me working with Andrew, and then eventually Andrew said, 'OK, now I'm going to show this to Danny.'' The writer has said that fast-moving zombie dogs in the 1996 video game 'Resident Evil' were a disclosure: 'That's the thing that gave the idea of a zombie movie, but where the zombies move quickly.'
Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, and Christopher Eccleston rounded out the cast for the film that got released theatrically on June 27, 2003. It collected 74 million dollars globally at that time, and a 'THR' story about its legacy noted that the project 'uses the idea of these living dead to explore the collapse of society.'
Producer credits
Danny Boyle
, the director, and
Alex Garland
, the screenwriter, only had producer credits on the 2007 sequel of '28 Weeks Later,' but the June 20 follow-up of '28 Years Later' sees the return of Boyle as director and Garland as writer.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Buy Brass Idols - Handmade Brass Statues for Home & Gifting
Luxeartisanship
Buy Now
Undo
Over the years, Boyle has attended anniversary screenings for '28 Days Later' and informed Garland when they're packed with fans. 'I think it's the idea and the manner with which we did it,' Boyle has said about the first movie's appeal.
'That led us to think, 'Could we actually investigate this further?''
The OG cast
The sci-fi thriller had Cillian Murphy as Jim, Naomie Harris as Selena, Brendan Gleeson as Frank, Megan Burns as Hannah, Christopher Eccleston as Major Henry West, Noah Huntley as Mark, Stuart McQuarrie as Sergeant Farrell, Ricci Harnett as Corporal Mitchell, Leo Bill as Private Jones, Luke Mably as Private Clifton, Junior Laniyan as Private Bell, Ray Panthaki as Private Bedford, Sanjay Rambaruth as Private Davis and Marvin Campbell as Private Mailer.
Additionally, Alex Palmer, Bindu De Stoppani, and Jukka Hiltunen portray the animal liberation activists, while David Schneider portrays a scientist at the laboratory. Christopher Dunne and Emma Hitching appear as Jim's parents, and Toby Sedgwick plays an infected priest encountered by Jim.