tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/danny-boyle-20225/articlesDanny Boyle – The Conversation2018-07-23T13:48:26Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/977402018-07-23T13:48:26Z2018-07-23T13:48:26ZWhy Trainspotting’s Danny Boyle is the right man to help James Bond save Brexit Britain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228798/original/file-20180723-189308-1nptbef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ok, you pulled off one amazing trick by creating a great opening ceremony. Now, this ...</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/british-director-danny-boyle-attends-t2-785932822?src=xhzp1IlOY64_g48k6Hq98w-1-0">Denis Makarenko/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44258209">Much has been made</a> of Danny Boyle’s appointment as director of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2382320/">Bond 25</a>, the next outing for Daniel Craig’s 007, slated for a 2019 release. Both Bond and Boyle have longstanding interests in a thriving United Kingdom; the former being bound to serve the country as an elite spy, and the latter, as a director known for his <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/articles/this-is-for-everyone-an-appreciation-of-danny-boyle/">creative portrayals of British culture</a>.</p>
<p>Since its gritty reboot in <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/casino_royale/">Casino Royale (2006)</a>, the Bond films have been praised, in part, for rejecting the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGCGWb6nt_c">gadgetry of previous films</a>, instead prioritising depth of character and staging a vulnerable Bond prone to introspection. Coupled with greater awareness of real-life political issues in the films – big banks and money laundering, playing politics <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0830515/">with natural resources</a> in developing countries – Craig’s Bond has been asking himself why and for whom he serves. </p>
<p>In his 25th movie outing, Bond will have an extra political issue to address: Brexit. Bond’s remit is to protect British society and interests from abroad. Given Britain’s changing politics, the spy will likely have a new set of international dynamics to negotiate. </p>
<p>Boyle, too, will need to pay close attention to the political landscape. He will be directing a franchise film for the first time – one funded by Hollywood dollars that plays on the kitsch British pound – and will be selling the goods to the global movie market. </p>
<p>But what will this mean for potential storylines? Look back to Sam Mendes’ <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1074638/">Skyfall (2012)</a> and you’ll see inspiration taken from the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33253598">7/7 bombings of London’s transport network</a>. Skyfall dramatises a self-questioning Britain, no longer trustful of the international model of espionage. When M (Judi Dench) attends a parliamentary inquiry into the running of MI6, she explains to the chair:</p>
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<p>Our enemies are no longer known to us. They don’t exist on a map. They’re not nations. They’re individuals. </p>
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<p>Skyfall is all about saving the UK from its own, and rescuing it in the face of supranationalist political terrorism. It focuses on restoring unity to the UK’s nations, while rejecting internationalist politics. Towards the beginning of the film, during a psychometric test, Bond’s own trigger-word response to “country” is “England”. The UK, like Bond himself, is fractured.</p>
<h2>Nation reunited</h2>
<p>The only other represented part of the UK is Scotland, where Bond grew up. It represents a younger, more innocent Bond, before he fell into the world of spying and sin. When Bond finally kills cyberterrorist Raoul Silva in a bid to save the country (albeit at the cost of the Britannia-esque matriarch, M) he simultaneously prepares the way for Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) to assume his tenure as head of MI6, tasked with keeping the UK safe long into the future. </p>
<p>This narrative of protecting the nation was cemented during the “<a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/daniel-g-williams/single-nation-double-logic-ed-miliband-and-problem-with-british-multicu">opening ceremony</a>” of London’s 2012 Olympics. Bond seemingly retrieved the Queen from Buckingham Palace and brought her to the Olympic stadium by helicopter, where she leapt out. Evoking Roger Moore’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw77HagbeHM">scene in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)</a>, a union jack flag adorned Her Majesty’s parachute.</p>
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<p>Fittingly, the director of the ceremony was Boyle. His “<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/27/sport/decoding-olympic-opening-ceremony/index.html">Isles of Wonder</a>” was a vision of Britain that sought to bring together the country’s voices and histories as a harmonious whole in which the British nations are sutured together invisibly; borders largely erased and difference easily overcome. It was a Utopian vision of concord and camaraderie. </p>
<p>Boyle’s vision of Britain hasn’t always been the most optimistic, however. His most feted film – <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117951/">1996’s Trainspotting</a> – thought about the UK in starkly different terms. Based on Irvine Welsh’s 1993 novel, Trainspotting documents the tribulations of a handful of Scottish addicts, whose tipples range from alcohol to violence to heroin. Set during Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, the Leith area of Edinburgh in the film is underfunded and forgotten by the neo-conservative society that Thatcher cultivated. Trainspotting’s Scotland is splintered off from the coherent UK.</p>
<p>By the time Boyle’s Bond film is released, Britain will have exited the European Union. The new internationalist arrangement between the UK and its continental counterparts will potentially be a throwback to the pre-Thatcher UK, when nations were primary drivers in politics. Though there is no saving Trainspotting’s disintegrated UK, Boyle’s Bond offering will come up against the backdrop of a “saved” nation – at least in terms of its own national identity, that is. </p>
<p>In the Bond films, Britain has long had a foil for solving international disputes, and a figure whose commercial appeal outweighs, on average, the current GDP of over 150 countries. But Boyle brings something new to the Bond universe, and his Trainspotting version of Britain where individualism thrives against a conception of a coherent UK is something Bond has rarely encountered. Now, however, the only question that remains is whether Bond will once again be able to save the Queen Olympics-style, as it were, and restore unity to a fractured Brexit Britain.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97740/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Taylor-Collins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Together, Bond and Boyle will be tackling Brexit Britain.Nick Taylor-Collins, Lecturer in English Literature, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/732692017-02-21T03:51:06Z2017-02-21T03:51:06ZTrainspotting on stage brings a disturbing reality vividly to life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157608/original/image-20170221-18635-iszbu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Calum Barbour as the drug dealer in Trainspotting. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Irvine Welsh’s in-yer-face, anti-fairy tale of no-hope NEDs (non-educated delinquents), and the mega-highs and ultra-lows of skank (heroin) in <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/margaret-thatcher-9504796#synopsis">Thatcherite</a> Scotland, may now be seen by those who, when it first appeared, were no more than wee gobshites sucking at their mother’s tit. And if you think that’s offensive, perhaps this isn’t the show for you.</p>
<p>Now a stage show touring nationally, Trainspotting was first a <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/135836.Trainspotting">novel</a> (1993), then a play, and a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117951/">film</a> (1996), with a sequel, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2763304/">T2 Trainspotting</a> opening this week. The adaptations of this grunge classic reveal different qualities in each medium. The stories are fractured and verbally dense, a mix of Scots and Scots English.</p>
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<p>Danny Boyle’s film is cooler, almost ironic, with sequences of colourful, surreal action. The stage version is something else again. It has chunks of prose description in it, lifted straight from the book, but also explosions of visceral action of the kind live performance specialises in.</p>
<p>It’s one thing to read about the lead character Alex Renton waking up covered in his own vomit and faeces. It is another to see it happen three feet away from you and – should you be the lucky recipient of the actor’s attention – have a heavily soiled sheet flipped over you like a chair cover. First produced at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 1994, it’s raw, exposing, high-energy theatre, and fluids pour from every orifice of the cast’s bodies.</p>
<p>When the film appeared I was advised not to see it because it “glamourised drugs”. Er, no. It is hard to imagine a clearer-eyed testament to drugs’ scrofulous effects than Welsh’s “scabby wee book”. It makes Cormac McCarthy seem like an optimist. Trainspotting doesn’t demonise drugs and it certainly doesn’t demonise its characters. It tells the truth about them, and that is enough.</p>
<p>How does this revival of the stage play stand up after 20 years? Haven’t we moved on? Hasn’t the yawning void of life in Leith in the late 1980s been replaced by a golden age of i-pods, gym memberships and meaning? </p>
<p>Who would have thought – certainly not me, looking back at those bleak, dislocated times, that the world would actually get worse. Trainspotting has not dated. If anything, its dank reality has spread more widely. Save for the absence of mobile phones and CCTV cameras, it could have been new-minted last Tuesday.</p>
<p>Like the game of soccer with which the characters are obsessed, the play comes in two halves. The first is fast, furious and very, very funny. The characters lurch from worse to worser, as life presents its intractable qualities. It’s a comedy, in other words, albeit it a comedy about hard drugs.</p>
<p>The second half is an evenly paced descent into hell, as the consequences of earlier actions play out to terminal result. Renton survives, but Tommy, his best friend contracts HIV and dies alone in a pit of a flat. The hinge scene is one in which Sick Boy shoots up with his girlfriend Lesley while their baby daughter, Dawn, dies of neglect in the room next door.</p>
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<p>This production from the UK, courtesy of the Kings Head and Andrew Kay, was presented in Adelaide in a low-ceiling bunker at Hindley Street station, a concrete lozenge with audience on both sides and a few spectators in the middle. Music throbbed on entry and laser lights flickered. The nightclub atmosphere set the evening up for some engaging spectator interaction and an appropriate sense of immediacy.</p>
<p>Touring a theatre show is unforgiving labour. The actors – all great – are working their tails off, often doing three a shows a day. This demanding schedule, plus the non-theatre space, means their voices are taking a battering. Dialogue down the opposite end of the venue was hard to follow, particularly when delivered in thick Scottish accents. Let’s hope the actors find more user-friendly venues on their travels. They deserve them.</p>
<p>At Trainspotting’s opening night, a festival-hungry audience was clearly looking for a good time. And for the first 50 minutes of this 75 minute production they got it. After that, as a friend said to me later “you don’t really enjoy this show, you experience it”.</p>
<p>I took my 13 year old son, even though it’s advertised for 16 and older. After the first scene I thought I’d made a terrible mistake and would have to leave. A few minutes later I realised I hadn’t. Modern drama is full of serial killers and predatory extraterrestrials, gigantic video games that suck your brains out, and armies of zombies that eat your flesh. There’s schlock horror every time you turn on Netflix.</p>
<p>Trainspotting is confronting in a different sense. It’s real. The characters in the play aren’t victims. They are witty, intelligent and self-empowered. But they are part of a society that doesn’t give a shit about them, and in which they can find no psychological or functional purchase.</p>
<p>T2 Trainspotting releases in Australia on February 23. It will be fascinating to see what Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie are doing today.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/shows/trainspotting/">Trainspotting</a> is showing at the Adelaide Festival Centre until March 19, and will be performed in Melbourne (March 22 - April 13) and Brisbane (April 19 - 22).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73269/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Meyrick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s one thing to read Irvine Welsh’s grim tale of 1980s Scotland - it’s another to see it happen three feet away from you.Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/719622017-01-26T16:58:56Z2017-01-26T16:58:56ZTrainspotting sequel is more about losing life than choosing it<p>What a drag it is getting old. Trainspotting mid-life-crisis-cum-catch-up <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2763304/">sequel T2</a> feels that in its aching bones. But director Danny Boyle’s film also knows that the passing of time hurts some more than others. We all lose our youth, but only the once-gorgeous have to mourn departed looks and desirability as well. </p>
<p>All of which begs the question: why would a film as fashionable and culturally cocksure as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117951/">Trainspotting (1996)</a> want to do anything other than let us lovingly remember its original iconic glory? </p>
<p>To its considerable credit, T2 doesn’t duck that quandary. A heart attack brings a middle-aged Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) back to Edinburgh from his home in Amsterdam and into the ambit of former partners-in-crime Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) and Begbie (Robert Carlyle). The characters’ awareness of time’s inexorable tick-tocking dictates a collective interest in settling scores rather than scoring smack. The passing of the years – what they do to us, and what we do (or don’t) with them – is T2’s central thematic preoccupation. </p>
<p>So what, you may say: middle-aged men make a movie about middle-aged men hating the fact that they’re male and middle-aged. But then, large parts of the original Trainspotting’s ideas — being young is a beautiful mess – were considerably less audacious than the cinematic energy and ingenuity with which they were realised onscreen. Similarly, T2’s discourse on the unpleasant facts of later life resonates because of the style with which it’s frequently communicated. </p>
<h2>Speed of time</h2>
<p>While anyone over the age of 30 probably doesn’t need a movie to inform them that time is the enemy, you can’t help but admire the witty verve with which T2 makes the point. Spud’s set-piece job interview on speed from the original, for example, is refurbished in the new film as an older man regaling an addicts’ support group with the tragicomic tale of how failure to know about British Summer Time ruined his life. His moral? The clocks move relentlessly forward whether we know it or not. </p>
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<p>Elsewhere, Renton and Sick Boy hit upon the larcenous masterstroke of stealing wallets from a Loyalist social club. It turns out militant protestants’ obsession with British sectarian history means they all use “1690” (the year of the Battle of the Boyne) as the PIN code on their bank cards. Conclusion? One can always try to live in the past, but eventually you pay the price. </p>
<p>Elements of the self-conscious and self-referential also make their presence felt in T2’s updating of Trainspotting’s fascination with the undersides of Scottish and British social experience in the 1990s. Trainspotting’s portrayal of drug and music-based subcultures rang true for many at the time. The popular perception was that the film’s makers possessed sufficient personal proximity to many of the scenes and substances of which they spoke. </p>
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<p>T2, however, feels more like the work of an experienced travel writing collective: cosmopolitan observers conducting a psychosocial safari predicated on looking in rather than being part of something. As social commentary, T2 feels like the creation of artists who’ve been there and done that, as opposed to being here and doing this. </p>
<p>This particularly crystallises around a succession of visual images of the usually overlooked or unseen side of things, which feel smart but superficial. Begbie’s prison visiting room has, you’ll be glad to know, bright yellow panic buttons beneath the meeting tables. Renton is tickled to find a small stash of gear still securely stuck to the bottom of a piece of furniture in the boyhood bedroom he hasn’t entered for 20 years. Veronika (Anjela Nedyalkova) is the somewhat schematic replacement for Trainspotting’s Diane as a Lolita-esque love interest. She is asked by the latter, in a brief returning cameo for actor Kelly Macdonald, about the appearance of her perineum. </p>
<p>Images and moments like these can be amusing, but there’s no post-millennial equivalent to “<a href="https://theconversation.com/20-years-after-trainspotting-is-it-still-shite-being-scottish-66007">It’s shite being Scottish</a>”. It’s enough, T2’s makers seem to say, that the sheer cleverness of all this pleases both of us – no need for social or political meaning as well. </p>
<h2>Clocking backwards</h2>
<p>Yet if Trainspotting possessed contemporary social and pop-cultural swagger aplenty, even in 1996 a few dissenting voices complained the movie lacked heart. The sequel may be a far less resonant document of How We Live Now, but it ca be accused of lacking sincerity or sentiment in its exploration of ageing. </p>
<p>T2’s finest image is its final one. It deliberately circles back to Trainspotting’s celebrated beginning by referencing the unmistakable sound of Iggy Pop. In doing so, the new finale deserves to be remembered as a bravura visualisation of existential paradox. </p>
<p>Human beings go through their allotted span revisiting and replaying certain core formational situations and states even as they are carried further and further away from them. Got a lust for life, indeed. But what that constant hunger means to people, and what it puts them through, changes radically as the decades roll by.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonny Murray does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>No cultural milestone this time around, but some memorable moments on ageing.Jonny Murray, Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Design, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/660072017-01-25T11:17:10Z2017-01-25T11:17:10ZTwenty years after Trainspotting, is it still ‘shite’ being Scottish?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151727/original/image-20170104-18679-16hqz6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Channel Four Films</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This month will see a continuation of the Trainspotting saga – reuniting the original characters 20 years on for the release of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2763304/">T2 Trainspotting</a>. Fans of the film and author Irvine Welsh may be excited, but the 20 years that have passed since the original movie hit our screens means the sequel arrives in a very different time and a very different environment. </p>
<p>For one thing, Trainspotting launched many of its stars into successful movie and television careers. Since the original, Ewan McGregor has portrayed young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels. And Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and Kelly Macdonald have all appeared in TV shows such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843230/">Once Upon a Time</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2191671/">Elementary</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0979432/">Boardwalk Empire</a>. Success hasn’t been a stranger to director Danny Boyle either, who won a best director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire in 2009.</p>
<p>The conditions of film production in Scotland have also changed a great deal since the first Trainspotting was made. In the early-to-mid 1990s, Scottish film productions received public lottery funding from the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=O8VZAAAAMAAJ&q=Screening+Scotland&dq=Screening+Scotland&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilm4-I3cfRAhVk74MKHbiZBL4Q6AEIGjAA">Scottish Film Production Fund</a>. </p>
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<p>This was then supplemented by sources such as Channel 4, BBC Films and the Glasgow Film Fund. The collaborations were an essential part of the funding, as generally none of these sources could provide enough money to finance an entire film – Channel 4’s involvement with <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=O8VZAAAAMAAJ&q=Screening+Scotland&dq=Screening+Scotland&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilm4-I3cfRAhVk74MKHbiZBL4Q6AEIGjAA">Trainspotting being a notable exception</a>. </p>
<p>But following the back-to-back successes of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111149/">Shallow Grave</a> and Trainspotting, in 1997 the Scottish Film Production Fund was combined with other film-related public organisations into the overarching body known as <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=O8VZAAAAMAAJ&q=Screening+Scotland&dq=Screening+Scotland&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilm4-I3cfRAhVk74MKHbiZBL4Q6AEIGjAA">Scottish Screen</a>. </p>
<h2>What you been up to for 20 years?</h2>
<p>This organisation was designed to address filmmakers’ complaints about the Scottish Film Production Fund – and to stop those who oversaw the lottery-based funding from only <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=O8VZAAAAMAAJ&q=Screening+Scotland&dq=Screening+Scotland&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilm4-I3cfRAhVk74MKHbiZBL4Q6AEIGjAA">supporting film productions</a> they had interests in. But not long after its inception, the newly formed Scottish Screen quickly drew criticism for its perceived favouritism towards more mainstream productions – which were often taken on because it was believed they would be able to compete on an international level and achieve the levels of success seen by Trainspotting. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, though, many of the films supported by Scottish Screen turned out to be <a href="http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?cPath=1037_7487&products_id=76859">financial and critical failures</a> – and the funding agency was dissolved by the end of the noughties. Many Scottish filmmakers at this time began to turn to other sources of film financing, particularly European co-production. This meant Scottish cinema often took on a more continental feel in terms of both style and subject matter. </p>
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<p>One example of this in <a href="http://www.zentropa.dk/">Zentropa Entertainments</a>, the production company belonging to Danish director and leading figure in the <a href="http://www.dogme95.dk/dogma-95/">Dogme 95</a> movement, Lars von Trier. The movement saw filmmakers stripping cinema of its illusions, by making directors ascribe to a set of restrictions known as “<a href="http://www.dogme95.dk/the-vow-of-chastity/">The Vow of Chastity</a>”. Von Trier made <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115751/">Breaking the Waves</a> in Scotland, and his company also produced films such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329767/">Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300109/">The Last Great Wilderness</a> in Scotland during the early 2000s. </p>
<p>Zentropa also paired with Glasgow’s <a href="http://www.sigmafilms.com/">Sigma Films</a> for <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110711095859/http://www.glasgowfilm.com/redroad/advance_party.html">The Advance Party</a> project, which aimed to give first-time feature directors a chance to produce three films using the same set of characters. The first of these films, Andrea Arnold’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0471030/">Red Road</a> won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2006. </p>
<h2>Creative Scotland</h2>
<p>By July 2010, Scottish public funding for film production fell under the rubric of <a href="http://www.creativescotland.com/">Creative Scotland</a> – a new developmental body for support of the arts and creative industries in Scotland. Though drawing criticism, much as its predecessors had done, Creative Scotland has had a hand in the production of several feature films such as Robert Carlyle’s directorial debut <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2552394/">The Legend of Barney Thomson</a> and the recent adaptation of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2884018/">Macbeth</a>, starring Michael Fassbender. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151725/original/image-20170104-29222-1l1vyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151725/original/image-20170104-29222-1l1vyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151725/original/image-20170104-29222-1l1vyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151725/original/image-20170104-29222-1l1vyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151725/original/image-20170104-29222-1l1vyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151725/original/image-20170104-29222-1l1vyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151725/original/image-20170104-29222-1l1vyhc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Actors Ewan McGregor and Ewan Bremner running through the streets of Edinburgh in T2.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">PA</span></span>
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<p>Over the past few years, there have also been a number of high-profile populist films coming out of Scotland, such as the Proclaimers musical <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2481198/">Sunshine on Leith</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1450321/">Filth</a> – another Irvine Welsh adaptation. </p>
<p>But despite this popular streak, production of more art-house fare remains strong in Scotland, with offerings such as Ken Loach’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1924394/">The Angels’ Share</a>, and Jonathan Glazer’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441395/">Under the Skin</a>, which starred Scarlett Johansson.</p>
<h2>Domestic talent</h2>
<p>Given all the changes over the last 20 years, it’s easy to wonder if Trainspotting’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0003659/?ref_=tt_cl_t1">Mark Renton</a> would still agree with his declaration, “It’s shite being Scottish”? Because it isn’t just the industry that has changed in 20 years, Scotland itself has changed since the 1996 release of Trainspotting. Just one year later, in 1997, Scotland voted in favour of devolution, and in 1999 the Scottish Parliament was restored after a 292 year absence. </p>
<p>Devolution has given Scotland the ability to make some policy decisions – not only regarding arts funding but also in areas such as education, housing and health and human services – separately from the United Kingdom. </p>
<p>And there is a markedly increased interest in the political side of Scottish nationalism as well. By 2011, the Scottish Nationalist Party held a majority in Holyrood. And although the 2014 Independence referendum was defeated, it was by less than 11% of the vote. Then, of course, there is the result of EU Referendum, in which Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain. </p>
<p>So, with a changing political climate and with Scotland named as the <a href="http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/scotland-named-number-2-country-9549817">number two country in the world in 2017</a>, 20 years on, maybe Scotland isn’t looking so shite after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66007/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Torricelli does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As T2 Trainspotting hits cinemas, a great deal has changed since the original.Emily Torricelli, PhD Researcher in Theatre, Film and Television, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/473232015-09-10T05:32:58Z2015-09-10T05:32:58ZChoose life, choose a job, choose a sequel … do we need Trainspotting 2?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94292/original/image-20150909-18672-1ghhl63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'I will proceed directly to the intravenous injection of hard drugs, please.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/benedikte/3207362010/in/photolist-5TqyZ1-ePEq8m-c7dbj7-bFbQyX-eiLayg-dNdvS8-bf42UK-dtxFf5-6ZrZDj-bMTA3c-dXGV9h-dvkz7o-ccbpaE-eQ1kJ1-czz2YJ-depgXy-bUutti-6VxiPc-aRAMT8-6VZg1q-cSufdJ-btpXYu-4F2rMR-cvohCh-dr1FhY-dMAzxb-6PU2tZ-jxh16e-cnvkKb-dWrdE5-dgdyRt-bh4aHV-dQkwgw-dW4uHD-drDr48-dQDqT9-e4toN9-ebiBVB-chh2zA-dtAGrr-dyo9YR-dwirLB-6aPV3M-cVCFc9-752gvk-bjvVux-6CfwPT-cfZrom-cttcJw-dBCsry">Benedikte Vanderweeën</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Danny Boyle <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/trainspotting-2-danny-boyle-to-begin-shooting-longmooted-sequel-20-years-after-landmark-film-10490494.html">has announced</a> that his next project will be a sequel to the breakout hit Trainspotting. Planned to be released next year to coincide with the 20-year anniversary of the original, what can we expect from the follow-up and what implications does this move have for a film industry increasingly dependent on delayed sequels and reboots?</p>
<p>Based on the novel by Irvine Welsh and set in Edinburgh, Trainspotting famously centred on Renton (Ewan McGregor), a heroin addict whose very existence seemed determined by his quest to get his next fix and the effects on his family and wayward friends: Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Spud (Ewen Bremner), Begbie (Robert Carlyle), Tommy (Kevin McKidd) and Diane (Kelly Macdonald). </p>
<p>It was a visceral and kinetic depiction of 1990s drug culture, aesthetically somewhere between <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066921/">A Clockwork Orange</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110912/">Pulp Fiction</a>. Together with an innovative advertising campaign and popular soundtrack (“lager, lager, lager …”), what resulted was a global critical and commercial hit. And this was surprising, considering the harrowing subject matter: the sequence showing Renton’s withdrawal and that toilet scene are two memorably disturbing moments.</p>
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<p>So how will the sequel compare? Its working title, Porno, comes from Welsh’s own <a href="http://www.irvinewelsh.net/books/info/?t=Porno">book sequel</a>, although the rumours are that the film’s plot will differ from the novel. After many years of speculation, Boyle is set to return to direct, John Hodge will again adapt the screenplay and the four leads (McGregor, Bremner, Miller and Carlyle) will reprise their roles. </p>
<p>Twenty years is a long interval, however, and part of Trainspotting’s success was surely the way it captured the public’s imagination at a specific cultural moment. It was part of the era of 1990s/early 2000s club culture in the UK that went on to spawn the likes of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0188674/">Human Traffic</a> (1999), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274309/">24 Hour Party People</a> (2002) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388139/">It’s All Gone Pete Tong</a> (2004). Moments from the film have meanwhile become iconic, such as the rhythmic, frenetic “choose life” opening sequence accompanied by Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life. Moments such as these might create a sense of nostalgia for spectators when the sequel is released, but they might equally prove unrepeatable. </p>
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<p>Life after Trainspotting has also changed dramatically for some of its key personnel. Boyle has become an <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/oscars/7904567.stm">Oscar-winning</a> director with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/">Slumdog Millionaire</a> (2008) and a critical darling thanks in no small part to tackling a diverse range of subject matter and genres. Horror (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289043/">28 Days Later</a> [2002]), science fiction (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448134/">Sunshine</a> [2007]) and biopic (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2080374/">Steve Jobs</a> [2015]) have all received the Danny Boyle treatment, not to mention his role as artistic director for the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2VPSjHnc2E">London 2012 Olympic Games</a>. Going back to the same subject matter could prove a professional risk.</p>
<p>Ewan McGregor’s performance as Renton turned him into a Hollywood leading man with roles in Baz Lurhman’s version of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203009/">Moulin Rouge</a> (2001) and as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the three <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2015/05/03/star_wars_why_does_everyone_hate_the_prequels.html">Star Wars prequels</a>. As such, McGregor has developed a star persona that is at odds with his role in Trainspotting, when he was still relatively unknown to audiences. It will be a testament to his skills as an actor if he is able to seamlessly step back into that role.</p>
<h2>Choose dollar signs</h2>
<p>Sequels and reboots are hardly a new phenomenon, but they seem to be everywhere in mainstream Hollywood. A glance at films playing in UK cinemas this week reveals the extent of production companies’ dependency on tried and tested formulas to ensure healthy box-office returns. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2381249/">Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation</a> is the fifth iteration of Tom Cruise’s all-action Ethan Hunt, itself a remake/reboot of the 1960s television series. </p>
<p>Other examples include <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340138/">Terminator: Genisys</a> and Marvel superhero film sequels <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/">Avengers: Age of Ultron</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478970/">Ant-Man</a>, which form part of a “multi-verse” of film and TV crossovers to cultivate a distinctive brand. Then there is <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2938956/">The Transporter Refueled</a>, where the film’s reboot status even seems to be referenced in the title.</p>
<p>What is perhaps less common is the delayed sequel/reboot, but that may be changing. The extraordinary <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/07/global-box-office-bollywood-jurassic-world-transporter-refuelled">financial success</a> of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369610/">Jurassic World</a> demonstrated this year how a successful product, several decades old, can be re-packaged and sold to a new audience as well as those who look fondly on the original. </p>
<p>Forthcoming releases include <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1608290/">Zoolander 2</a> and an all-female update of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1289401/">Ghostbusters</a>. It is tempting to decry this trend as nothing more than balance-sheet filmmaking. Jurassic World, especially, bares a remarkable resemblance to its 1993 predecessor in terms of plot and characters. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">And compared to the fans’ reaction …</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jobriga/8731272255/in/photolist-eiy43P-cCEpK-9MCD7g-9MFpbE-9MFopS-9MCAnr-9MCA6z-9MCzNa-o5pgkU-4b6Kuu-6gSXfm-6gSWwo-nYXGQ1-ogaDWZ-6gNKGZ-ogpoAS-uNq7Xv-napDkz-a2SD1n-hbeGCf-bN195M-idjRow-wKV72-bz6t3G-maHjcR-eiDNFW-9Mvt3s-87XMKe-a5SxMp-38bEQH-idk7Bq-4BDBPd-4BDBQ1-4BDBPu-4BDBPN-bfdhy-p6Lkw8-a2SCYr-hXSaUL-ALK3m-2p9NX4-cezhxY-maJ1Ct-dvbDX6-cUjx7C-33cpx-kihDy-33cpQ-p5mDN-5fNw3">Joe Gallagher</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>In some cases, the film spectator might have more of a part to play than they realise. Joss Whedon’s 2005 space western <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/">Serenity</a> and last year’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229340/">Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues</a> were both examples of films that came about from strong fan demand – outcry from fans of Whedon’s science fiction series Firefly in the case of Serenity and howls for the further adventures of Will Ferrell’s anarchic character in the case of Anchorman. Clearly the reduced economic risks of familiarity and spectator demand are both powerful forces, often working together of course. </p>
<p>No doubt they are both playing at least some part in the decision for “Trainspotting 2” to go ahead. That and timing. Hodge had finalised a draft script two years ago, but it seems Boyle and co are now all in a position to commit to the project. Either way, we shall have to see whether it can be a hit with fans and at the box office. For those wary of the result, there is at least one definite note of reassurance: it is being made by those who created a landmark British film the first time around.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47323/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Vaughan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Danny Boyle’s pop heroin fable defined an era and made the careers of everyone involved. Here are a few reasons to be wary of the sequel - and a possible happy ending.Adam Vaughan, Postgraduate Researcher, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.