Danny Boyle confirms Trainspotting sequel

Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner in Trainspotting. Courtesy Channel Four Films

Multi-award winning director Danny Boyle, of Slumdog Millionaire, The Beach and the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony fame, has confirmed that a Trainspotting sequel is in the works, almost 20 years after the critically acclaimed first film hit cinemas in 1996.

Boyle has also confirmed that all four original leads – Ewan McGregor, Ewan Bremner, Johnny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle – will be reprising their roles, and that shooting will begin as soon as the four's busy schedules can be matched up. Speaking at the Telluride Film Festival, where he is promoting his latest film, Steve Jobs, Boyle revealed: "All the four main actors want to come back and do it. Now it's just a matter of getting all of their schedules together, which is complicated by two of them doing American TV series."

McGregor, who starred as Renton in the original movie, and has more recently played roles including Obi Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, had already hinted at a sequel earlier in the summer. Speaking at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Scottish actor said: "Nothing has been determined, but it would make sense for the sequel to be made in 2016, the 20th anniversary of the original."

A sequel looked unlikely for a long time, in part thanks to an apparent fall out between McGregor and Boyle over the director's decision to cast Leonardo DiCaprio over McGregor in 2000's The Beach. However, McGregor insisted this is past history: "I've met with Danny a few times recently and everything is great between us," he said.

Boyle also revealed he already has a screenplay ready. The new story will be based loosely on Porno, Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh's own sequel to the original novel. However, as the book is set nine years after the original, and the new film will take place 20 years later, the second novel is expected to act as a reference point rather than a script in itself.