Danny Boyle Promises Cillian Murphy Will Lead '28 Years Later Part 3'

Danny Boyle has confirmed that a third "28 Years Later" film will be made — and that Cillian Murphy will be central to it.

"'28 Years 3,' or whatever it ends up being called, will get made because people keep asking about it. Quite when I'm not sure, but there's a script – a very good script by Alex Garland," Boyle said, speaking at the Zurich Film Festival, where he presented his new film "Ink."

"[It will have] a lot of Cillian Murphy in it. Whether he'll take his kit off anymore, that I don't know. He's got the Oscar now," he added, referring to Murphy's Best Actor win and his brief, much-discussed appearance in "28 Years Later."

Boyle's Bond verdict: cast Jack O'Connell

The director also weighed in on the perennial Bond question — a subject on which he has firsthand experience. Boyle left "No Time to Die" over reported creative differences with producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, as well as star Daniel Craig.

"When they asked me to do Bond, we came up with the story [with John Hodge] and they lost confidence in it. It's a shame, because it could have been really good," he said.

His prescription for the franchise's future is simple: "They should cast Jack O'Connell as Bond."

O'Connell plays Larry Lamb in "Ink," Boyle's biographical drama adapted by James Graham from his stage play. The film follows Lamb as he accepts an offer from Rupert Murdoch (played by Guy Pearce) to become editor of The Sun newspaper.

Boyle said he championed O'Connell for the part because of the actor's unsettling watchability. "Have you seen 'Back to Black'? It's a wonderful film. He plays the boyfriend and that's an impossible part. It was an incredible performance," he said.

"I thought he should play Larry Lamb, because he's weird. Despite the fact that he's playing a monster, you're still interested in him. You're still intrigued by him and he doesn't repel you. It was true of the guy in 'Ink,' because by the end of the film, his moral conscience – if there ever was one – has dissolved entirely as he pursues success. And you still have to root for him."

Boyle compared the effect to a classic screen performance: "I used to say it's the same as Al Pacino at the end of 'The Godfather Part II,' when he has ordered the murder of his brother, and yet you're still intrigued by Pacino just sitting there all alone."

A different Murdoch — and a thread to the present

Boyle said he deliberately avoided caricature in his portrait of the young Murdoch. "People are fascinated by him, and repelled by him, but this comes from a time when he first arrived in the U.K. and was a very different figure. I thought it's really interesting not to play into the caricature of him, because back at the beginning, he wasn't like that at all. He's quite a prudish man, weirdly."

The director traced a direct line from the paper's 1969 relaunch to the current state of public discourse. "I really do believe that what they did in 1969, and the beginning of this newspaper, has actually more impact on our lives today. There's a clear thread that runs from this ignition point to where we are today. We have lost our relationship with the truth, and by that I mean our dependable relationship with the truth."

"We've replaced it with – and the most powerful man in the world is the best example of it – with brazen assertions and loud stories, and completely counter-intuitive declarations. Somebody tells the truth, he says it's a lie and 'fake news.' It's the kind of attention economy, or clickbait, that didn't exist in 1969, but you can see its origins."

He noted that Lamb's own political drift — "You would describe him as a bit of a soft liberal" who accepts Murdoch's agenda "because the numbers are good" — mirrors broader shifts in power. "Trump was a Democrat and now he's a Republican president. These guys move where the power is."

Boyle also insisted on shared responsibility. "You have to acknowledge that their success is something that we're all complicit in. I think you have to accept that you can't just blame Trump, which I've just done, but you have to accept your own responsibility in it. The idea of the film was to try and make that an engaging journey that people went on, and you discover something about where we are now, how we got there, and whether we want to do anything about it."

On Villeneuve, Nolan and hope

Asked about the Bond franchise's new steward, Denis Villeneuve, Boyle was generous — and wry about his own confidence levels. "Villeneuve is amazing. Did you see that beginning of ['Dune: Part Three'], which they showed before 'The Odyssey'? God, if I was directing 'The Odyssey,' I would have thought everybody would be disappointed in my film following it. But obviously, Chris Nolan has more confidence than I have."

Despite his bleak reading of the media's legacy, Boyle closed on a note of cautious optimism, pointing to Andy Burnham, who has just become Prime Minister in Britain. "He's concentrating on a much more long-term problem rather than the divisiveness which everybody likes to encourage. He's concentrating on something that connects us all, which is how are we going to look after our older population. We're going to need a solution. So yes, change is possible."

His final word: "You have to look for those sprouts of hope."