’28 Years’ Third Movie Moving Forward: Cillian Murphy In Talks

EXCLUSIVE: Sony is proceeding with the third 28 Years Later movie following the electric fan reaction from recent screenings of the second film, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta. That pic comes out over MLK weekend on Jan. 16. The third movie in the latest trilogy doesn’t have a title yet.

Buzz is that 28 Days Later star, Cillian Murphy, who reprises his role in The Bone Temple, is in talks, and franchise scribe Alex Garland is currently writing part 3. Murphy is an EP on 28 Years Later and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. The Oppenheimer Best Actor Oscar winner is repped by CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.

When Sony won the rights for 28 Years Later trilogy, they had the option for the third movie. They waited to greenlight it. Rather they shot the first two movies back-to-back with Danny Boyle returning to direct the first, and Candyman filmmaker Nia DaCosta helming the second. Boyle has said in interviews he’d like to helm the third 28 Years Later, and it’s hopeful he’ll return.

28 Years Later opened to $30M, one of the top openings for a horror movie in a year that was flooded with them. The movie went onto to gross $70.4M domestic, and $151.3M worldwide, easily the highest grossing in the franchise which started back at Fox Searchlight in 2002 with 28 Days Later, which was directed by Boyle and written by Garland, and which followed up by 2007’s 28 Weeks Later, which was directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and written by Fresnadillo, Rowan Joffe, Enrique López Lavigne and Jesús Olmo. All in, the entire 28 British horror series across three movies has minted close to $300 million worldwide; the titles taking place in a dystopian future where the ‘infected’ have ravenously squared off with the human population, which as you’ll see in Bone Temple, is fiercely divided.

The hoots and hollers coming from the Century City Westfield mall last night weren’t from the Christmas lights that were strung about, rather the fan screening for Bone Temple at the AMC Century City multiplex.

Gold Derby and IndieWire scribe Simon Thompson beamed in the first round of social media reactions, “Nia DaCosta knocks it out of the park with #28YearsLater #TheBoneTemple. The complex tapestry of tones provides the perfect canvas for a brutal and nightmarish study of unchecked power. O’Connell goes all in on maniacal Sir Jimmy while Fiennes eats up needle drops like a demon.”

Sony had no comment when reached about today’s news.

Garland is repped by WME and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher.

Ralph Fiennes in ’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’