Danny Boyle and Cillian Murphy are both open to making 28 Months Later

It’s the opening moments of Danny Boyle’s post-apocalyptic masterpiece 28 Days Later, first released 20 years ago this week.

Danny Boyle has revealed that there’s a script ready for the sequel to horror hits 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later – and he’s down to direct the project.

Boyle recently told NME that Alex Garland, who wrote 28 Days Later, has written a screenplay that contains a “lovely idea.” He continued, “I’d be very tempted [to direct it]. It feels like a very good time actually. It’s funny, I hadn’t thought about it until you just said it, and I remembered ‘Bang, this script!’ which is again set in England, very much about England. Anyway, we’ll see… who knows?”

Cillian Murphy, who starred in 28 Days Later, echoes the potential desire for a threequel.

“Every time I do bump into Danny or Alex I always mention it,” Murphy said. “Because I showed it to my kids recently, some Halloween about four or five years ago, and they loved it. It really stands up, which is amazing for a film that’s 20 years old. So yeah, I love the idea and it’s very appealing to me.”

Boyle agrees: “The central city security was almost unrecognisably relaxed compared to what you will understand as city centre security now. That changed with the millennia and we benefitted from deciding to shoot those early mornings in July.”

He adds: “We hired all these girls to be traffic marshals. One of them was my daughter who was 19 at the time and they’d say, ‘Would you just mind waiting here? We’re making a film…’ It’s just bizarre the way it worked.”

It wasn’t just the real world that was about to change. Consciously distancing himself from zombie tropes, Boyle ushered in a whole new breed of seething, rabid-dog ghouls, spewing blood from their eyes and mouths while sprinting after their victims. It was a far cry from the Night Of The Living Dead shufflers people were used to.

The film stars Cillian Murphy as Jim, who awakens from a coma four weeks after a dangerous virus rages across the land – transforming swathes of the population into red-eyed, murderous zombies. After that atmospheric introduction in London, Jim journeys to Manchester with fellow survivors Selena (Naomie Harris), Hannah (Megan Burns) and Frank (Brendan Gleeson). They’re promised a cure via military broadcast, yet the ulterior motives of Major Henry (Christopher Eccleston) are soon laid bare, leading to a ferocious game of cat-and-mouse. Budgeted below £7million, 28 Days Later made more than £73m at the box office