Trivia / 28 Weeks Later

• Actor Allusion: One of the survivors is played by Karen Meagher. You know her best as Ruth Beckett.
• B-Team Sequel: Danny Boyle intended to direct again, but couldn't due to his commitments to Sunshine. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo took over directing, with Danny Boyle as an executive producer (although he did direct the opening scene). Rowan Joffé took over writing the script from Alex Garland, who did have some input (the timeline at the beginning was his idea).
• California Doubling: The scenes in Wembley Stadium had to be filmed in Principality Stadium (at the time called Millennium Stadium), Cardiff, due to the actual place undergoing renovations at the time.
• Development Hell:
  • The film itself went through considerable rewrites and turbulent pre-production, to the point where both Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, respectively director and script writer for the 28 Days Later decided to simply remain in executive position, but without direct involvement into filming. They also had a fall-back with their colleagues from the production team of the original, which made another debacle about copyrights and how to even handle the production.
  • The possible 28 Months Later sequel is perpetually in limbo - for the same legal reasons it's near impossible to film it in the first place and both Boyle and Garland displayed over the years a variety of stances toward it. Officially it never got cancelled, but nothing was ever done to start making it, either. Over the decade the whole project is a sinusoid, being either claimed to "just start working" or "no chance to even start" - and as for last update in 2019, it's again in "just start working" status.
• Fake American: Australian Rose Byrne and, somewhat oddly, Briton Idris Elba as American soldiers. Most of the other U.S. soldiers seem to be Britons playing them.
• Hey, It's That Place!: Don and Alice are hiding out in the same farm from Children of Men. The farm is also in Never Let Me Go.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Jim, Selena and Hannah don't appear in the film because of the actors' commitments; Cillian Murphy was busy with Batman Begins, Breakfast on Pluto and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Naomie Harris was busy with Pirates of the Caribbean (whose second and third films were shot back to back), and Megan Burns was focusing on her music.
• Throw It In!: The film was supposed to end with the shot of the parked helicopter. The director and two producers flew out to Paris at the last minute to add the extra bit on.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Early script ideas included following what happened next to Jim, Hannah and Selena, or a concurrent story during the 28 days where a SAS team was sent into London to retrieve the Prime Minister or the Queen. Danny Boyle had intended to direct but was busy filming Sunshine.
  • The script had Scarlet dying before Doyle. However, the director felt that there was more potential for fear and tension if Doyle died first - and swapped the deaths around.

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