But also calls it 'nerve-wracking'
Shooting for Trainspotting 2 begins next summer, with Ewan McGregor (Rent Boy), Jonny Lee Miller (Sick Boy), Ewan Bremner (Spud) and Robert Carlyle (Begbie) all reprising their roles - and the original Trainspotting screenwriter John Hodge writing the script too.
We don't know much about the film, other than it's 'loosely based' on Irvine Welsh's follow-up novel Porno - but in an interview with NME, Begbie (AKA Carlyle) revealed more. He said he was nervous about shooting the movie, because of how much of a hit the original film was.
'It's nerve-wracking to a certain extent, because I'm obviously aware of just how much people loved the original film,' he said. 'People still quote lines to me on a fucking daily basis. I get it everywhere; I can't fucking escape it! But I'm grateful for it too - Begbie has been fucking terrific for me and my career. So therefore - and I think probably if you asked the rest of the boys, they'd feel the same - I'm slightly wary about it all.'
But despite the nerves, Carlyle is confident that it will be a hit - because of the script and because of the director.
'We've already had a read-through of the script, we did that in the springtime,' he said. 'You're going to think, "Of course he’s going to say this," but honestly, it's one of the best scripts I've fucking read. I mean, ever. What John Hodge has done is just so clever.
'And though I'm obviously feeling a little bit tense about it because of the success of the first film, I'll tell you this: if anyone can pull it off it's Danny Boyle. He's the best director I've ever worked with, he's immense.'
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He also talked about how the film will make us question ourselves now that we, and the characters, are older and (possibly) wiser.
He said: 'Well, obviously these four characters are 20 years older now and I've never seen a sequel that takes place 20 years after the original, so I think that gives it a certain unique quality.
'And of course, the audience is 20 years older too - people who came to see the original film when they were in their early twenties are very different people now. And the way John Hodge has put this thing down, obviously with the help of Danny Boyle, is to make it about how the characters' lives have moved on… or have they?
'Without giving anything away, maybe some of them haven't really moved on. That's what the audience is going to have to go through with them. I tell you, this film is going to be quite emotional for people. Because the film sort of tells you to think about yourself. You are going to be thinking: "Fuck. What have I done with my life?"
'Yeah, that's really what the whole thing is about. Have these four characters changed? Have they remained the same? Have they fucked it up completely? Have they achieved anything? And of course the audience are going to be asking themselves exactly the same questions. So it's a beautiful thing, this film.'
We. Can't. Wait.
Back in October, Danny Boyle revealed that the new film will not disappoint.
The Oscar-winning director told Vulture that having met with the cast and crew he knows that the film will work: 'You just knew,' he said of getting the crew back together for a week-long summit on the film.
'It had this feeling about it, where it honours the original and it won’t disappoint people. It’s not the same film, but it can’t be, and we wouldn’t want it to be. And the actors all responded to it as I thought they would.' Trainspotting first hit our screens 19 years ago. And Danny revealed in Septemer that not only is Trainspotting 2 (as we’re calling it for the time being) happening but that all four original main cast members are returning.
‘All the four main actors want to come back and do it,’ Danny told Deadline.
‘Now it is only a matter of getting all their schedules together which is complicated by two of them doing American TV series.’
Danny, who is currently promiting his biopic Steve Jobs about the former Apple founder, has also confirmed that filming will take place next May or June and the movie might hit the silver screen by the end of 2016.
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Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Danny revealed that like it's predecessor the sequel will be made with a relatively small budget:
'We’re doing it for less than $20 million, and that’ll give us control of the film so we can make the film we want to make,' he said.
'That’s as much as you can get without being answerable to anybody. You can sort of get on with it without much interference. Although we could have raised a lot more money for this, we didn’t, so we’re trying to keep some sense like we kept the original.'
The adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s shocking novel launched the careers of Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Johnny Lee Miller and Ewen Bremmer.
Johnny Lee Miller is currently starring in Sherlock over in the US, while Robert Carlyle plays Rumpelstiltskin in Once Upon A Time.
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Trainspotting, a visceral portrayal of the lives of heroin addicts in 90s Edinburgh, became a cultural phenomenon when it was released in 1996 leaving a generation of people shocked, awed and terrified of wall-climbing babies.
The sequel will be based upon Welsh’s 2003 follow-up novel, Porn, which takes place ten years after the events of the original.
Screenwriter John Hodge, who was nominated for an Oscar first time around for his hard-hitting, jaw-dropping script, has already written the sequel and Boyle reckons it’s “terrific”. Are you excited about the Trainspotting sequel? Let us know @marieclaireuk
