INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Ewan McGregor Loves The Script For ‘Trainspotting’ Sequel

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 22:31 PST, Mar 30, 2016

Ewan McGregor has read the script for Trainspotting 2, and he loves it, which means the entire cast of the first movie will definitely be back in the sequel film.

The Inquisitr reported a while back on the fact that a sequel to the popular film Trainspotting was in the works. It’s been 20 years since the first movie hit the big screen, and reportedly Danny Boyle was nervous that he wouldn’t be able to get the whole pack together again for the sequel.

The original Trainspotting is considered to be one of the best movies of the last 25 years, and making a follow-up to such an iconic film is obviously a little nervewracking.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the author of Trainspotting, wrote the sequel novel, Porno back in 2002, and immediately rumors started doing the rounds that Danny Boyle would get the whole gang together again for a sequel movie. At that time, however, both Danny Boyle and Ewan McGregor downplayed the idea, saying they would only do this when the time was right.

Now it seems the time is right indeed, but reportedly Ewan McGregor was still not sure if it was a good idea – until he read John Hodge’s script for Trainspotting 2, which he says is incredible.

McGregor says he and the rest of the cast only signed up because of that script, admitting that if the screenplay had lacked the energy and vitality of the original movie, they would all have probably decided against reprising their roles.

According to Ewan, the script only arrived very recently, and it is “really, really, really good. I think, if that had not happened, none of us would be into it.”

“I think we’re all sort of somewhat protective of what Trainspotting means to people, and what it means to us. None of us want to make a poor sequel to it. So had we not been presented with the most extraordinary script, which we were, I think we wouldn’t be making the sequel. But because we were, we are.”

As Cinema Blend reports, it is now officially happening, and everyone is getting excited about it, but what is known about Trainspotting 2 so far?

Unlike the book Porno, which is set 10 years after the original story, the sequel of the film will be set 20 years later – rather fitting, seeing as Trainspotting was released in 1996.

The leading four actors from the original Trainspotting are all on board. There will be Ewan McGregor in the role of Renton, Ewan Bremner will play Spud, Jonny Lee Miller will reprise his role as Sick Boy, and Robert Carlyle will be back as his character, Franco.

For those who don’t remember the original film, Trainspotting – made for a mere $1.5 million back in the day – was a huge success and went on to gross $72 million worldwide.

The story is set in the late 1980s in a poverty-stricken area of Edinburgh, Scotland, and follows the lives of a group of four friends, all fighting poverty and drug addiction. The story was handled in a humane fashion, and the film was exciting to view. The movie met with critical acclaim and according to some is one of the best British films of all time.

For that reason, Trainspotting 2 has got to be good to match, or hopefully even eclipse, that previous success. According to Ewan McGregor, shooting will start “very, very soon,” and the film will be released some time in 2017.

[Photo via Flickr by Craig Duffy, cropped and resized/CC BY-NC 2.0]

Share this article: Ewan McGregor Loves The Script For ‘Trainspotting’ Sequel
danny boyle
More from Inquisitr