Director Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later sequel 28 Years Later was shot with a bunch of Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max smartphones
28 Days Later director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland have finally reunited to make a sequel to their zombie (or, if you prefer, infected people) movie classic. As we reporter earlier this year, this sequel is set up at Sony, is going to be called 28 Years Later – and it’s meant to launch a whole trilogy of 28 Days Later sequels. Filming on the first installment in this trilogy wrapped last month, and the folks at Wired have learned that the movie was shot using “a bunch of adapted iPhone 15s.” iPhone 15 Pro Maxes, to be exact. The fact that 28 Years Later was shot with smartphones, despite having a budget of $75 million (and thus becoming the biggest movie to date filmed with smartphones), seems quite fitting, given that 28 Days Later was one of the first major feature films to be shot with the Canon XL-1, a $4000 MiniDV prosumer camera. As for why the iPhone info didn’t leak out until a month after 28 Years Later wrapped filming, it’s because those who worked on the film had to sign NDAs about that detail.
The cast of 28 Years Later includes Jodie Comer (The Bikeriders), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (The Fall Guy), Erin Kellyman (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), and Ralph Fiennes (Conclave). It has also been said that 28 Days Later star Cillian Murphy returns “in a surprising way.”
In the original film, Murphy played bicycle courier Jim, who wakes up from a coma to find himself in an apocalyptic England that’s overrun by people who have been infected by a rage virus. Boyle and Garland went through several endings for 28 Days Later before landing on the one movie-goers saw in theatres – and that ending was the only one where Jim survived. So he’s still out there, ready to live through another rage virus nightmare 28 years later. As The Hollywood Reporter previously noted, “The 2002 film grossed $82.7 million globally and spawned a sequel, 2007’s 28 Weeks Later, though Boyle and Garland were only nominally involved as executive producers.”
Garland is already writing the screenplay for the sequel that will come after 28 Years Later. Of the two 28 Years Later projects currently in the works, Boyle is only planning to direct the first one. For the second film, he’s passing the helm over to Candyman and The Marvels director Nia DaCosta. Thanks to their deal with Sony, each of these new films will be receiving a theatrical release and will have budgets in the $60 million range. As mentioned, 28 Years Later has a budget of $75 million.
Boyle and Garland are producing 28 Years Later with Bernie Bellew, original producer Andrew Macdonald, and Peter Rice, who was the head of Fox Searchlight Pictures when that company backed 28 Days Later. Murphy is executive producing. The film is scheduled to reach theatres on June 20th, 2025.
What do you think of 28 Days Later being shot with iPhone 15s? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
