After waiting over 20 years to receive the sequel to Danny Boyle's 1996 cult film Trainspotting, it may come as quite a shock to learn that a TV series spin-off is already on its way.
In an interview with NME, actor Robert Carlyle - who played Begbie in the original film - confirmed that a third instalment to the gritty, era-defining film and novel is in the works. “Irvine and myself have been chatting quite a lot recently with a couple of excellent producers in London about [revisiting Trainspotting]," Carlyle said.
What will the Trainspotting spin-off be about?
As fans of the film will know, Trainspotting was based off of Irvine Welsh's novel of the same name. And as it so happens, Welsh didn't stop at one book, but went on the produce four more that continue the story of Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie. If the TV series comes to fruition, it will mirror Welsh's fourth book The Blade Artist which came after Skag Boys.
The Blade Artist centres Begbie, the junk-loving bully of Welsh's universe. Although, in the novel Begbie has turned a corner; he's clean and living in California as an artist with his wife and two daughters. At first it seems like Begbie has eluded the ill-fate Renton saddled him with, that is until his family in California is threatened and he learns that his younger son, Sean, has been murdered back in Edinburgh; thus reeling him back into the world it seemed he'd left behind. Which begs the question, will we see the rest of Trainspotting's shady characters? At the moment that remains unclear.
How many episodes will the TV series have?
According to Robert Carlyle the series will take the form of six, one-hour episodes - a format that allows for greater exploration of Irvine's novel. "It’s such a massive story – it’s all Los Angeles back and forth to Edinburgh – and it’s difficult to do all that in an hour and a half! Especially if you want to keep the basis of that book pure. I think nowadays people like the event thing too – they like ‘six hours of this… bang.’ They can boxset it. They can binge it. So after a few chats we thought that’s the way forward. So that’s the plan. Sometime in the next year and a bit we’ll hopefully be talking again and we’ll be talking about the return of Begbie," he said.
As for a release date? Considering the TV series is still in the early stages of development we don't have any concrete details at the moment. But as soon as we do we'll be sure to let you know.
In the meantime, if you dig the Trainspotting soundtrack - they used Lou Reed's Perfect Day well before it appeared on Spencer - why not take your ears for a turn around these other great film soundtracks?
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