Ewan McGregor wants to do Trainspotting sequel

EWAN McGregor has said that he would love to reprise his role as Mark Renton in Danny Boyle’s sequel to Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting follow-up Porno.
Ewan McGregor. Picture: TSPLEwan McGregor. Picture: TSPL
Ewan McGregor. Picture: TSPL

The Hollywood star said it would be an “extraordinary experience” to rejoin the original cast of the cult 1996 film.

The 42-year-old said the time was right for a follow up, after years of saying he would not return to the character.

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Set during the 1980s, Trainspotting follows the exploits of a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh.

It focuses mainly on McGregor’s character Renton as he tries to quit drugs and escape the rundown area, amid the allure of narcotics and the influence of friends.

The film also features Scottish actors Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, Ewen Bremner and Kelly Macdonald, as well English actor Jonny Lee Miller.

Boyle, 56, has long said that his aim is to get all of the original cast back together, with the film showing how their lives have changed 20 years on.

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Until now, McGregor had been seen as the main holdout for the complete reunion, with many other cast members saying they would love to explore their characters once again.

Chuffed

However, the actor delighted fans at a screening of Trainspotting on Monday, at the London Film School, where Boyle, along with the films producer Andrew MacDonald held a Q and A on the original, and his plans for the sequel.

During the event, McGregor was interviewed over the phone. Asked if he would want to be involved in the sequel, he said: “Yeah, I would.

“It’s funny, Irvine Welsh’s novel, Porno, is set 10 years after, Trainspotting, but I wasn’t ready to do it then, for lots of reasons.

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“But now there’s talk of it happening in a few years time, and I’m totally up for it.

“I’d be so chuffed to be back on set with everybody and I think it would be an extraordinary experience”.

Boyle said of the sequel: “It would be the premise of the film that we take all the same actors and have them playing the same parts and you would examine what’s happened to them in the 20 years”.

Boyle hopes to make the film in 2016, following a “long term plan” for the project.

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John Hodge, who wrote the original Trainspotting screenplay as well as those for Boyle films Shallow Grave, A Life Less Ordinary and The Beach, is working on the sequel which is “very loosely based” on Irvine Welsh’s sequel to the original book.