'Trainspotting 2': Robert Carlyle Says, 'It's One of the Best Scripts I've F---ing Read'

Robert Carlyle, Ewan McGregor, and Jonny Lee Miller in ‘Trainspotting’ (Everett)

By Jacob Bryant, Variety

Robert Carlyle has read the script for Trainspotting 2 and he seems to be a fan.

“You’re going to think, ‘Of course he’s going to say this,’ but honestly, it’s one of the best scripts I’ve f—ing read. I mean, ever,” Carlyle, who played Begbie in the original Trainspotting, said to NME in a recent interview.

Trainspotting director Danny Boyle will helm the sequel, and writer John Hodge returned to pen the script, which is said to be loosely based on Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting follow-up novel Porno. In fact, the entire main cast of the original is expected to return, including Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, and Ewan Bremner.

“Obviously these four characters are 20 years older now and I’ve never seen a sequel that takes place 20 years after the original, so I think that gives it a certain unique quality,” Carlyle noted. “And the way John Hodge has put this thing down, obviously with the help of Danny Boyle, is to make it about how the characters’ lives have moved on… or have they? Without giving anything away, maybe some of them haven’t really moved on. That’s what the audience is going to have to go through with them. I tell you, this film is going to be quite emotional for people. Because the film sort of tells you to think about yourself. You are going to be thinking: ‘F—. What have I done with my life?‘”

Carlyle spoke highly of both the power of Hodge’s script and his faith in Boyle’s directorial talent.

“And though I’m obviously feeling a little bit tense about it because of the success of the first film, I’ll tell you this: if anyone can pull it off it’s Danny Boyle,” he said “He’s the best director I’ve ever worked with, he’s immense.”

Trainspotting 2 is expected to begin shooting next summer.