Scottish actor Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rogue, The Island) returns to his breakthrough role of Mark Renton in Columbia Pictures‘ T2: Trainspotting, the eagerly anticipated sequel to the 1996 milestone film, Trainspotting.
The sequel will be shown exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas (Glorietta 4 and Trinoma) starting March 1, 2017.
Joining McGregor are his original castmates, Ewan Bremner as Spud, Jonny Lee Miller as Sick Boy, and Robert Carlyle as Begbie.
In the original film, the four life-long friends/associates/bitter enemies had travelled to London to sell a bag of fortuitously obtained heroin. While the rest are sleeping, Mark Renton sneaks out with the entire proceeds: £16,000 in cash. He walks away. He will not look back.
Now, twenty years have gone by. Much has changed but just as much remains the same. Mark Renton returns to the only place he can ever call home. They are waiting for him: Spud, Sick Boy, and Begbie.
Other old friends are waiting too: sorrow, loss, joy, vengeance, hatred, friendship, love, longing, fear, regret, diamorphine, self-destruction and mortal danger, they are all lined up to welcome him, ready to join the dance.
For its many fans, the first film provided an adrenalin jolt to a British movie scene dominated at the time by period dramas, social realism and romantic comedies. With its trippy visuals, propulsive soundtrack and cast of unforgettable anti-heroes and supported by an innovative, in-your-face marketing campaign Trainspotting caught the spirit of the times perfectly.
McGregor remembers the first time he saw a cut of the film: “I went to see it in a small Soho screening room with my wife and my uncle. I remember just coming out and being completely blown away after. We were looking at each other, not really able to talk about what we’d seen. Brian Tufano’s cinematography, all the performances, Danny’s direction, the music … it was just like all of the elements were as good as they could be really. And so the chances were it wasn’t going to suck. And it didn’t”.
The actor used the back story from Irvine Welsh’s follow-up book Porno as a template for Renton, “although plot wise we‘ve deviated hugely,” he says. “He’s certainly less successful than the Renton is in Porno, and the fact he has just had heart-surgery is key. This has been a life changing experience for him. I’m lucky enough not to have had one but I can imagine you re-evaluate your life after that: what you’ve done and what you want to do with the rest of what’s left.”
“In Trainspotting, Renton was the observer," McGregor continues. “He’d describe what everyone’s been up to – and say it’s all shit eventually. The hard stuff in this one was to play the fact that he’s so broken when he comes back, he’s really in a state. His marriage is falling apart and he doesn’t know what he’s going to do with the rest of his life. And that’s why he’s back, because these are the only people that really know him or that he knows. I suppose it’s a mid-life crisis of sorts, all of which plays slightly against the quiet smart gun Renton we knew from the original.”
“T2: Trainspotting” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.
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