Danny Boyle Says Third ’28 Years Later’ Is ‘On the Back Burner,’ Explains Why He Put an AI Margaret Thatcher in ‘Ink’

The third “28 Years Later” film is unlikely to be arriving anytime soon, Danny Boyle has warned.

Despite being tee’d up in the closing scenes of “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” the director said the film was currently not a priority.

“Alex [Garland] has written a fantastic script. We just need money. But I hope it will,” he said, adding that Garland was also busy working as writer/director on the “huge project” that was “The Elden Ring” adaptation A24. “So it’s on the back burner at the moment.”

Variety has reached out to Sony, which released by “28 Years Later” and “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.”

Boyle was speaking at a special BFI London Film Festival talk with Puck’s Matt Belloni, a wide-ranging conversation covering all aspects of his career and the industry, including, inevitably, AI.

Danny Boyle had previously admitted to using AI sparingly in his latest feature “Ink,” about Rupert Murdoch, Larry Lamb and the rise of The Sun tabloid newspaper in late 1960s England. But one of the most noted uses was in his depiction of late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, where AI was deployed to swap her face over an actor.

Boyle, having said he’d been “very careful” to ensure AI “didn’t place anyone” on the film, sought to explaining his reasoning.

“It was very important to use that we didn’t use a Thatcher imitator,” he said, acknowledging that Thatcher and The Sun editor Lamb’s relationship was well documented. “She used to visit Larry Lamb’s office late at night after the edition had gone out, and they drank whisky together. She’d take her shoes off, curled up on the sofa.”

But Boyle said said with his Thatcher he “wanted her to be it,” so used an actor to play the scene and then used AI to face swap Thatcher in. He also admitted that his didn’t ask the Thatcher state beforehand.

“I declined the ask the estate for permission to do that,” he said. “I don’t think the estate of people like Margaret Thatcher should have control over our ability to insist on ideas in art about what her influence was on our lives. So that was really important.”