Stars reunite to launch T2 Trainspotting
● Hundreds turn out to cheer on their favourites at world premiere
The stars of Trainspotting reunited in Edinburgh last night for the world premiere of its long-awaited sequel – as director Danny Boyle hinted a third film could be on the cards. Ewan Mcgregor, Ewen Bremner, Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller arrived on the orange carpet – chosen to match the film’s distinctive branding – to a barrage of cheers and screams outside Cineworld in Fountainbridge.
Hundreds of fans braved wind and rain close to the birthplace of Sir Sean Connery, where a large T2 symbol revolved on a giant turntable.
Set 20 years after the events in the original film, Mcgregor’s character, Renton, returns to Edinburgh for the first time in two decades after betraying his friends at the end of the first film.
Also in attendance were Kelly Macdonald, who returns to play Diane in T2, and Anjela Nedyalkova, whose character Veronika goes into business with Renton and Sick Boy, and secures a grant to set up a sauna above a pub.
Oscar-winning Boyle, who made his name with Trainspotting and the Edinburgh-set thriller Shallow Grave, said: “We were joking that there is obviously an unresolved
0 Spotting the stars: Author Irvine Welsh joined the cast and director of T2 Trainspotting at the world premiere in Fountainbridge plot issue in that £100,000 of EU funding has gone missing in Edinburgh. Somebody, at some point, is going to come calling and say: ‘Where is that hundred grand?’”
The new film, loosely based on Irvine Welsh’s own 2002 sequel to Trainspotting, Porno, reunited Boyle with screenwriter John Hodge.
Carlyle hinted he was keen to step back into the shoes of violent thug Begbie, who was featured in a new Welsh book last year. The actor said: “That is the first time you see maybe there is another side to this guy. There is something quite emotional about that. He’s capable of feeling something more than just rage, so I’m pleased that element of Begbie has been shown.
“Maybe that sets up another film, because Irvine Welsh has written The Blade Artist. I am up for doing it. Maybe we ain’t seen the end of Begbie just yet.”