Old Red Eyes
Is Back

Bravely risking infection, Phil Dixon talks to the stars of another bloody movie...

Sequels are notoriously difficult ground at the best of times. So often low-grade cash-ins of a runaway hit are churned out by the Hollywood machine in an attempt to capitalise on a formula and bring the studios that mythical golden egg of a guaranteed box-office winner while sullying the memory of the original in the eyes and hearts of its fans, alienating all but the most casual of cinema-goers in the process.

At first glance 28 Weeks Later would appear to be just such a shrewd attempt to follow up the success of Danny Boyle’s 2003 sleeper hit, 28 Days Later. Shot for a relatively micro budget, on digital cameras and starring a then largely unknown cast, it saw phenomenal returns and critical acclaim worldwide, especially in the lucrative American market. It came as no surprise, then, that soon after Fox had given the go ahead to its successor, throwing reams of money into the pot to put a big budget Hollywood sheen to a very British film that many had considered brilliant but just a little flawed. “We were quite taken aback by the phenomenal success of the first film, particularly in America,” recalls producer Andrew Macdonald. “We saw an opportunity to make a second film that already had built an audience. We thought it would be a great idea to try and satisfy that audience again. The hard bit was to try and find a story which would live up to the power and depth that Danny and Alex (Garland) brought to the first film.”

With Boyle tied up with his work on Sunshine and various other projects, it was necessary to bring in another director who could carry the world of post-infection London forward with a safe pair of hands. The filmmakers believed they found just the man in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, after seeing his breakout work, Intacto.

“At the beginning when I received the message from DNA, the production company, talking about ‘I would love you to make this movie,’ it was a kind of shock,” says the Spanish-born director. “I said, why me? I’m not a Londoner, I’m not English. And especially in the first movie, London is a big character; it’s something that belongs to the concept, to the landscape. So it was a big dilemma when I received this message. But I was so curious about that, we had a meeting with [the producers], and we talked a lot about the movie and why they were thinking about me and in that moment I understood that they were looking for something fresh, new. And they gave me the opportunity, the freedom, to make my movie, my point of view about this landscape, which is something very unusual - especially if you realise that we are making a sequel.”

Fresnadillo’s fresh outlook manifested itself from the outset, as his pass on the script was a more human-focussed story than brainless gore fest, and the cast he assembled were a roster of quality actors without any marquee names, led by the ever-wonderful Robert Carlyle. Carlyle was convinced to take the part after Fresnadillo made the trek up to Glasgow to meet him, and laid out his unconventional approach:

“The first thing that Juan Carlos said was that ‘I really feel for the infected.’ I remember that and thinking ‘of all the things you could’ve said…’ “So that really stuck with me, and I thought well that’s coming from a man who’s obviously incredibly sympathetic and empathetic and understands that this piece contains human feelings. It’s not just about the gore and the blood and all that - which, let’s face it, there’s quite a bit of - but it is character-driven. I think personally that’s what makes it work -you feel for these people, even though they’re dropping off one by one, but you feel for them.”

Also brought in was fresh-faced and well-spoken British star-in-the-making, Imogen Poots - whose credit list to date comprises of a small role in V For Vendetta and an illustrious part in an episode of Casualty - in the integral role of Tammy, the daughter of Carlyle’s character, Don, who has a lot of growing up to do in the face of the rampaging mass of Rage-infected Londoners, which reflects her own coming of age in the midst of such a high-profile production. Was she nervous at all, taking on a much bigger role than anything she’d done previously?

“Sure. I was, yeah. But I was just so grateful for the opportunity to do it and it was such a brilliant cast and crew, they were so inclusive and charming the whole way through it. And I was nervous at the beginning, but it was so easy to immediately sink into it because everyone was so willing with advice and helped me relax into the job.”

Adding a more international dimension to the proceedings (thus making it more marketable to the American audience) was Lost star, Harold Perrineau, who plays helicopter pilot, Flynn. This was a role which saw him undertaking flying lessons in the search for authenticity. Wasn’t this a little superfluous in light of the fact that neither the studios nor the military would let him fly a helicopter on his own?

“It is me flying! Yes it is! No, in this day and age when we can use a lot of computer images and graphics, Juan Carlos wanted it to look like I was really flying it and to have the camera close up. So when you see me in the air it is me in the air. Of course there’s someone next to me, but it IS ME in the air! So I had to take flying lessons so it looked at least like I knew a bit about what I was doing. And it was a little frightening but great fun as well. You would tip it and suddenly like there’s the whole world, ‘cause there were no doors and so it’s like AIEEE! JESUS! And the next thing I know we were back up, so it was quite fun.”

So cast assembled and original approach established, the production then faced the unenviable task of filming on location in and around the streets and parks of London. No mean feat considering they had to film in some of the most recognisable locations while still making it look completely devoid of human life.

JCF: “We got a lot of problems, especially because we shot a lot of aerial shots of London, because I think it’s part of the concept, you know? To discover the city from the air, delivering the idea that maybe somebody’s watching. And when you’re dealing with that kind of size, the shot is very big, so wide, so that’s why we take advantage of the time, of course, but at the same time we need again the help of the special effects people. Always they are helping us a lot in this movie.”

So special effects were used to remove the ant-like figures and cars from the shots of the city high above, but how to get around the problem of the human factor on the ground? You can’t shut off major parts of one of the world’s busiest cities, and special effects haven’t come so far as to be able to erase a mass of morning commuters from a frame, so cast and crew had to start their working day around the time most people are going to bed, ready to grab what shots they could in the early morning light before the masses began to throng.

JCF: “Apart from the weather and the language, obviously, I think one of the difficulties that I got here, and kind of extra pressure, was it’s so difficult to shoot in London. Especially in this movie, London is a character, as I mentioned before, and we needed to see London completely empty, which means a lot of extra work and we needed to shoot really early in the morning, and only for maybe fifteen minutes, running the whole time, so that was very very difficult. But I think at the end it’s worth [it] because it’s very impressive when you see that final result on the big screen.”

And that spectacle was not lost on native Londoner, Poots…

IP: “Yeah, especially in the rush hour, because I’m used to going to school in the early mornings and coming back late, so somewhere like Shaftesbury Avenue, which is usually so bustling with people, to see it completely just deserted and derelict was really really strange. But Canary Wharf, that was quite beautiful when the bridge was completely empty, and just looking out across the water. I think that was definitely a beautiful sight, even though it was completely deserted.”

Carlyle had his own difficulties to face in portraying the conflicted character of Don, who in the opening sequence of the film makes the difficult decision to abandon his wife to her fate at the hands of the infected in order to save himself.

RC: “That moment’s just gold-dust for an actor. That’s what people are going to go home talking about - especially couples. It’s like, ‘I’m sorry babe, I’m off my mark!’”

“I seen a screening with my wife a few days ago and she said that, right after: ‘Would you run out on me?’ / ‘Well, I mean, he was scared, and…’ So that was uncomfortable, but yeah, it was a fantastic moment.”

This in itself is a powerful character point for any actor, but added to this Carlyle had to delve into his most feral and brutal side in order to later portray Don’s metamorphosis into the first of the new breed of infected. This should come as no great leap for a man used to portraying some brutal characters on screen, but how does gouging out the eyes of his screen wife (the lovely Catherine McCormack) factor on the scale?

RC: “It’s horrible that stuff, you know. When the transformation takes place, what it says at that point in the script is ‘Don transforms.’ That’s a bit like saying ‘The army comes over the hill,’ it could be anything. So Juan Carlos and me discussed it, and I had a lot of freedom to do what I wanted to do and just go crazy. But the bit that kind of sickened me the most when I seen that back there was the punching of her, actually. That really was quite disturbing, I hated that. That was like, ‘eesh.’ And we got on so well, as well. And even when the dummy was lying there, it was so realistic, you know? These guys are the sick ones (Indicating some members of the art department, off to the side), these model makers. Cause it’s like [Catherine is] lying there, and it’s really pretty horrible.”

One would think he would consider this the hardest part of his job, then, getting in touch with these darkest of emotions and having to carry that around with him for the rest of the day.

RC: “This was a pleasure to be involved in, and if you can enjoy it it’s okay. Anything’s cool if you’re enjoying it. The biggest problem I guess were the contact lenses, because I don’t wear anything like that normally, so that’s a bit like a fist in the eye, you know? And it’s sticky - if you walk into a hot studio, for instance, that’s the worst because then it’s stuck to your eye and you’re missing boxes and stuff like that. So it was uncomfortable but nothing I couldn’t handle.”

One should be ashamed to underestimate the professionalism of one of Britain’s greatest actors. Carlyle simply takes it in his stride, showing no matter what the scale of his surroundings he can bring a down-to-earth sensibility to the proceedings, which is why he fits so neatly into this production - a foreign director with a relatively low-profile cast surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the Big Smoke and the Big Business of Hollywood, and still doing it their way and telling a relatively simple story on a grand scale. It’s a beautiful thing.

28 Weeks Later
Review

Clips and trailers

Official Sites
ragevirus.co.uk
28weekslatermovie.co.uk
myspace.com/ragevirus

28 Weeks Later
Read review

Clips and trailers

Official Sites
ragevirus.co.uk
28weekslatermovie.co.uk
myspace.com/ragevirus