T2 Trainspotting

T2 Trainspotting
British release poster
Directed by	Danny Boyle
Produced by	Bernard Bellew Danny Boyle Christian Colson Andrew Macdonald
Screenplay by	John Hodge
Based on	Porno and Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
Starring	Ewan McGregor Ewen Bremner Jonny Lee Miller Robert Carlyle
Music by	Rick Smith
Cinematography	Anthony Dod Mantle
Edited by	Jon Harris
Production company	Film4 Creative Scotland Cloud Eight Films DNA Films Decibel Films
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures
Release date	22 January 2017 (2017-01-22) (Edinburgh) 27 January 2017 (2017-01-27) (United Kingdom)
Running time	117 minutes[1]
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$18 million[2][3]
Box office	$41.6 million[3]

T2 Trainspotting is a 2017 British crime comedy drama film, set in and around Edinburgh, Scotland. The film was directed by Danny Boyle and written by John Hodge, based on characters created by Irvine Welsh in his novel Trainspotting and its follow-up Porno. T2 was released in the United Kingdom on 27 January 2017,^[4] and worldwide throughout February and March 2017.

A sequel to Boyle's 1996 film Trainspotting, T2 stars the original ensemble cast, including leads Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, and Robert Carlyle, with Shirley Henderson, James Cosmo, and Kelly Macdonald in a cameo. T2 features a new character, Veronika, played by Anjela Nedyalkova. T2 includes film clips, music and echoes from the first film.

Plot

Twenty years after stealing £8,000 in drug money from his friends and making a new life in Amsterdam, 46-year old Mark Renton returns to Edinburgh after having a heart attack in a gym. While he has been clean from heroin for 20 years, his marriage has failed and he is about to lose his job. Daniel "Spud" Murphy has returned to heroin addiction after having lost everything including his wife, Gail, and visitation with his teenage son, Fergus, whom he fathered shortly after Renton left. Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson abuses cocaine, runs a failing pub, and engages in blackmail and filming schemes with his Bulgarian girlfriend, Veronika. Meanwhile, Francis "Franco" Begbie is serving a 25-year prison sentence after being arrested following the drug deal, and attacks his lawyer after being denied parole.

Renton goes to Spud's apartment just in time to save him from a suicide attempt. Spud initially resents the intervention, but Renton offers to help him out of his addiction. Renton visits Simon at the pub, where Simon attacks him. Afterward, Renton meets Veronika and pays Simon back his original share of the money. Simon informs Veronika that he is going to string Renton along and make him pay for his betrayal.

Meanwhile, Begbie escapes from prison. He returns to his girlfriend's flat and meets his college-bound son, Frank Jr., whom he forces to join him in burgling houses. Begbie also visits Simon in his pub, where Simon pretends to have heard of Renton living in Amsterdam and promises Begbie to provide him with a false passport in order to exact his revenge.

Renton, Simon and Veronika fraudulently apply for a £100,000 European Union business development grant to turn the upper floor of Simon's pub into a brothel. Veronika and Renton begin an affair, while Spud also joins in the renovation, befriends Veronika, and, inspired by Veronika, decides to write his memoirs. One of Simon's blackmail targets reports him to the police, and Renton seeks legal advice from his former girlfriend, Diane, a high-priced solicitor. The proceeds of their crimes are used up in legal fees and Simon's cocaine habit. Meanwhile, Begbie is hunting for Renton, determined to kill him.

Begbie visits Spud, and in reading his memoirs, discovers that Renton left Spud his share of the money. Veronika arrives and Begbie takes her phone, which he uses to text Renton and Simon to have them come to the pub at midnight. Veronika takes Spud to her apartment and asks him to leave with her, promising him half of the £100,000. Spud is afraid that he would spend it all on heroin again, so she offers to give his share to Gail and Fergus instead. He helps her steal the money by forging Renton's and Simon's signatures to transfer it to her account. Meanwhile, after reading another excerpt of Spud's writings about their encounter with Begbie's alcoholic father in the derelict Leith Central railway station, Begbie visits his girlfriend's flat for the last time, apologizing to Frank Jr. for his behaviour and telling him to be a better man than he or his father were, before departing.

At the pub, Spud arrives too late to warn Renton and Simon of Begbie's trap. Begbie knocks Simon down and chases Renton across the renovation works of the pub's upstairs floor. Renton ends up hanging by the neck from some electrical wiring after Begbie throws him through the floor. Begbie tries to pull down Renton to strangle him, but Simon douses him with pepper spray and saves Renton. Begbie pulls out a sawn-off shotgun and tries to kill them both, but Spud knocks him out with a toilet bowl.

They leave Begbie trapped in the boot of Simon's car, at the door of the prison from which he escaped. Veronika returns to her young son in Bulgaria. Spud puts together a book of memoirs from his writings and begins mending his relationship with Gail, who suggests a title (which is implied to be the novel Trainspotting). Renton and Simon resume their old friendship. Renton moves back into his father's home and embraces him in reconciliation, before going into his bedroom and dancing to a remix of "Lust for Life".

Cast

Footage included McGregor, Bremner, Miller and Carlyle from the original Trainspotting film. The author of Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh, appears near the middle of the film as Mikey Forrester, reprising his role from the first film. Carlyle also plays Begbie's father, the briefly seen wino in the Leith train station.

Production

In January 2009, Danny Boyle declared his wish to make a sequel to his 1996 film Trainspotting which would take place nine years after the original film, based on Irvine Welsh's sequel, Porno. He was reportedly waiting until the original actors themselves aged visibly enough to portray the same characters, ravaged by time; Boyle joked that the natural vanity of actors would make it a long wait. Ewan McGregor stated in an interview that he would return for a sequel, saying, "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."^[5]

In March 2013, Boyle said he wanted to make a sequel that would be loosely based on Porno which he had described as "not a great book in the way that Trainspotting, the original novel, is genuinely a masterpiece". Boyle said that if the sequel were to happen, it would be for a 2016 release.^[6]

On 6 May 2014, during a BBC Radio interview with Richard Bacon, Welsh said that he had spent a week with Boyle, Andrew Macdonald and the creative team behind Trainspotting to discuss the sequel. Welsh said the meeting explored the story and script ideas. "We're not interested in doing something that will trash the legacy of Trainspotting. ... We want to do something that's very fresh and contemporary."^[7] Welsh did not however confirm any kind of timeline for the film, unlike Boyle's comments about wanting the film to come out in 2016.

In November 2014, Welsh said that McGregor and Boyle had resolved differences and had held meetings about the film, saying "I know Danny and Ewan are back in touch with each other again. There are others in the cast who've had a rocky road, but now also reconciled. With the Trainspotting sequel the attention is going to be even more intense this time round because the first was such a great movie—and Danny's such a colossus now. We're all protective of the Trainspotting legacy and we want to make a film that adds to that legacy and doesn’t take away from it."^[8]

On 7 September 2015, at the Telluride Film Festival, Boyle stated his next film would be a sequel, tentatively titled Trainspotting 2.^[9]

In a 27 September 2015 interview with ComingSoon.net, Boyle revealed that a script for the sequel had been written, and that filming would reportedly take place between May and June 2016, in the hopes of releasing the film within that same year to commemorate Trainspotting's 20th anniversary.^[10]

While promoting Steve Jobs in November 2015, Boyle reiterated the hopes of beginning principal photography for the sequel in May and June 2016, and said that pre-production had begun in Edinburgh. Boyle also clarified that John Hodge wrote an original screenplay for the sequel, and that the film would not be a strict adaptation of Porno. An earlier script was reportedly written about 10 years prior, but was scrapped so that the original cast would agree to return for a film sequel. The working title for the sequel was T2.^[11][12][13]

In November 2015, Robert Carlyle said he would play Begbie. According to Carlyle, he and other members of the Trainspotting cast had already read John Hodge's script, and it would take place 20 years (much like its intended 2016 release) after the original plot. Carlyle praised Hodge's screenplay and said that T2 "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?'"^[14]

In early December 2015, it was announced that Sony's TriStar Pictures had acquired worldwide rights to the film and that the original lead cast would return.^[15]

Release

T2 was released in the United Kingdom on 27 January 2017, followed by rolling worldwide releases from 10 February 2017. The film was given a limited release in the US on 17 March 2017, followed by a wider release on 31 March 2017 in a few other major cities.^[21][22] T2 also screened out of competition at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival.^[23]

As of 9 April 2017, T2 Trainspotting has grossed $1.6 million in the United States and Canada, $21.1 million in the United Kingdom and $15.2 million in other territories for a worldwide gross of $37.9 million, against a production budget of $18 million.^[3]

Awards and nominations

Future

In March 2017, Danny Boyle discussed the possibility of a third Trainspotting film, hinting at the possibility that it could be a spin-off centered on the character of Begbie, in a story based off on the Irvine Welsh novel The Blade Artist. "I think [Robert Carlyle] would love to do that because it's an interesting twist on the character", Boyle said. "That may be made into a film. You couldn't call it T3 because, although some of the other characters come into it, they're only featured just momentarily. It's a solo story. You could call that a spinoff. [The Blade Artist] is a great read." Carlyle was likewise open to an adaptation of The Blade Artist. "We've been talking about that, I am up for doing it", he said at the T2 premiere in Edinburgh. "So maybe we ain't seen the end of Begbie just yet".^[29]

Boyle did state, however, he would be more interesting in directing a true sequel rather than a spin-off, preferring to work with the all of the principal actors. "My affection is toward all four of them", Boyle said. "People regarded the first movie as being Renton's movie, and I never really saw it like that, though he does dominate because of the voiceover. I always saw it as an ensemble movie, so I'm still very much in that mode."^[29]

Irvine Welsh has also hinted that a Trainspotting television series is possible.^[30]

References

External links

• Official website
• T2 Trainspotting on IMDb