Nia DaCosta in Talks to Direct Second Movie of ’28 Years Later’ Trilogy

“28 Years Later,” the legacy sequel to “28 Days Later” that will reunite director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, is meant as the first part of a trilogy. And Sony is eying the filmmaker to take the baton from Boyle – Nia DaCosta, the director of “The Marvels” and, crucially, the reimagined “Candyman” that she made for Monkeypaw Productions.

TheWrap has confirmed that the deal hasn’t closed yet but she is very much in talks. The new “28 Years Later” trilogy will be produced by Boyle, Garland, Andrew Macdonald, Peter Rice and Bernie Bellew. “28 Days Later” star Cillian Murphy (who may or may not be returning for the new films) will executive produce the trilogy.

The second part of the “28 Years Later” trilogy is meant to shoot almost immediately after Boyle finishes production on the first film, hence Sony eying DaCosta so soon. Garland, whose “Civil War” opens this weekend from A24, will write all three movies.

DaCosta also directed “Hedda,” based on the play “Hedda Gabler” by Henrik Ibsen, with Tessa Thompson in the leading role, coming from Amazon MGM Studios. That film also stars Imogen Poots, Tom Bateman and Nina Hoss. Production got underway in January in the United Kingdom.

“28 Days Later” was originally released back in 2002. It was a radical rejuvenation of the, at the time, moribund zombie genre. Murphy starred as a bike courier who gets hit by a car and falls into a coma. When he wakes up he finds a London almost totally devoid of (human) life, eventually falling in with a group of survivors (including Naomi Harris and Brendan Gleeson) who are attempting to navigate their new, zombie-plagued world. Shot in crummy digital photography that only heightened the uncomfortable realism, “28 Days Later” was a sensation, making almost $85 million on an $8 million budget.

There was a sequel, “28 Weeks Later,” released in 2007, with a completely new cast (including Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne and a pre-MCU Jeremy Renner) and Boyle and Garland only tangentially involved. That makes “28 Years Later” a true sequel, even if Murphy doesn’t decide to return.

On a recent video promoting “Civil War,” Garland has admitted that the script for “28 Years Later” has been delivered and a major source for inspiration was Ken Loach’s 1969 film “Kes” (based on the 1968 novel “A Kestrel for a Knave” written by Barry Hines). “I think the script I’ve delivered and ‘Kes’ are both focused around the experience of a young lad,” Garland said.