’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ Director Nia DaCosta Needed to Make the Unsparing Sequel Her Own Way

[Editor’s note: The following interview contains mild spoilers for “28 Days Later: The Bone Temple.”]

It’s a traditional-enough opening for many an interview: “so-and-so can do anything!” But “anything” can carry a lot of water. Harder is actually doing anything, and doing it well. Nia DaCosta can do anything and do it very well indeed — family drama, hard-hitting horror reboot, MCU entry, inventive adaptation — and so it’s understandable that she likes to take a little break between all those different things.

Consider her vivacious “Hedda,” which she hadn’t even finished editing before the call came in: Would she like to read a script for a new “28 Days Later” film? A superfan of the franchise from the start (she credits Danny Boyle’s original film for being a large part of her awareness of the power of the auteur), DaCosta couldn’t say no. Thank Old Nick for that!

DaCosta’s latest is “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” which follows Boyle’s much-loved (and long-anticipated) sequel, “28 Years Later,” released last summer and which didn’t just reignite affection for the franchise but also earned him some of his best reviews of his career. DaCosta’s follow-up opens immediately after the ending of Boyle’s film, and further tracks the journey of young Spike (Alfie Williams), as he falls into the horrifying fold of Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) and is set on a collision course with old pal Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), who may have cracked open what this zombie invasion is really about.

Ahead, DaCosta opens up about her long experience with the franchise as a fan first, the Duran Duran of it all, finding the humanity in O’Connell’s insane Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, her hopes for wider recognition for Fiennes’ incredible performance, and how she balanced a sequence so gruesome that she worried how many audience members might flee the theater in revulsion (don’t do that! it’s great!). And, come back on Friday, when we will share some more spoiler-heavy selections from our chat with DaCosta.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

IndieWire: First things first: when was the first time you saw the Bone Temple set in person?

Nia DaCosta: During prep, because it was built for the first film, and I was like, “This is amazing.” I saw a model first in the production office in Newcastle, and that was really cool, and then I went to set and was walking around with Gareth [Pugh] and Carson [McColl], who are the production and costume designers. I was just so impressed.

What was your relationship with this franchise before you came on board “The Bone Temple”?

I had the DVD of “28 Days Later” in my house when I was 12 and watched it every day. I thought it was so good. I loved it so much. I loved Cillian. I love Naomie. I loved Brendan, I loved Christopher Eccleston. I’m just like, “These people are amazing. The story’s amazing. The script’s amazing. The direction’s crazy.”

And it was when I was learning about having a vision and an author voice and learning about, “Oh, direction, oh, writing, oh, acting.” That wasn’t just that movie, but the fact that it was a horror movie that also was helping me in that education was really special.

Jack O’Connell and Director Nia DaCosta on the set of ‘28 Years Later: The Bone Temple‘Miya Mizuno

What’s it like when you get the call, “Hey, we’re bringing this franchise back, and there might be space for you as a director”?

It was so crazy. I was in my director’s cut for “Hedda,” living truly my best life. I did it! I shot the movie I wanted to shoot! La, la, la, having the best time of my life and being like, “Can’t wait to take a big break after this is over.” I told my team, “I don’t want to read anything. I don’t want to hear about anything, I’m busy.”

And then I get a call from my agent, John [Garvey], and he was like, “So.” I was like, “Oh,” because I know the tone. Basically, he was like, “They’re doing ’28 Years Later,’ there’s three films. The second one needs a director.” I was like, “Babe, it’s spring, and they want to shoot in August? That’s not going to work for me,” but I’m sitting here, so clearly, it did.

He’s like, “Just read the script.” The next day, I get a call from Alex Garland, and he’s like, “Just so you know, this is happening. You should read it, see how you feel,” but no one was offering anything to me. They went through a rigorous process. They talked to other directors. Then I read it that weekend, and I was like, “Oh, fuck, I need to do it. I need to do it, but I also need to do it my way. And if they let me do that, then I’ll be happy.”

Danny Boyle was very complimentary of you when we spoke, and he admired that you did it your own way and had your own vision.

I’ve had many different kinds of experiences making films. As a director, or maybe anyone who does anything that’s vaguely creative, you’re like, “How do I actually want to work? And how do I actually want to feel when I work, and how do I want to actually live?” It takes a second to realize that.

For me, I was like, “Oh, I need to be the master of my own destiny.” I cannot, and I will not, thrive, and I’ll not make good work if it’s not me doing exactly what I think is right for me to do with amazing collaborators who challenged me and all that stuff. So I was really clear about that, but I also had a clear vision for what the movie would be that I would make. And I was like, “If you’re into that, cool,” and they were into it.

’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’Miya Mizuno

So you have your own vision, and you have the stuff that you want to do, but you’re also making the middle movie of a trilogy. How do you make your own movie with those perimeters?

What was so fun was that the two scripts — because everyone who was being approached, who was in the mix, from actor to director, whatever, got both scripts to read — were so different. That’s really what opened up my brain to be like, “Oh, I can shoot this however I want.” Obviously, I have a reverence for the first film. I have a reverence for Danny’s work, but I have no interest and no capacity to imitate it because he’s unique. No one wants to see my version [of a Danny Boyle movie], that’s boring as hell. I can’t do that shit, I don’t want to do that.

Because I felt the scripts were inviting that, and also because of this very distinctive world of Kelson versus this distinctive world of the Jimmys, I was like, “Oh, I can do this, I can have distinct worlds and have visual languages that are different, and then they come together and create fireworks.” I wanted to do that.

The film features a number of Duran Duran songs that figure prominently in Kelson’s story. Were they all specifically in Alex’s script?

Yeah, well, I think we used one of them slightly differently, and he was open to me changing it. But, yeah, it was there, and it made sense for the character, and I thought it was really tender. The only song that was in the movie that was not written into the script was the Radiohead song [“Everything in Its Right Place”].

I read that you loved Alex’s script, but your big note was that you wanted more infected?

I will say that specifically, the one thing that I really wanted to see was someone turn [into the infected]. I would say, “I want someone to vomit blood, let’s go.” So that was put in. There are a couple of things just to bridge some stuff that I wanted, but again, they were so open, so collaborative.

At what point in your production did you see a cut of “28 Years Later”?

I hadn’t finished shooting my film when I saw [a cut]. He’s genuinely so generous, because I saw a cut of the film that no director would ever show anyone because he knew it would help me, and it could be helpful. He was like, “Just so you know what the sketch is.” I think it was before I shot potentially, maybe it was the first couple of weeks or something.

Basically an assembly cut?

Essentially, yeah. He hadn’t even touched it. I had access to the dailies as well the entire time. But I watched it once and then put it away, and that was it. There was just always an open line of communication. If I had questions, I could always ask if he had thoughts. It was just great to be in lockstep with really brilliant people.

’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’Miya Mizuno

So, speaking specifically of capital h Horror, you’ve got this sequence we will just call the “taking off the shirt” scene.

I know, I’m so sorry. Actually, listen, I know it’s a lot. I was telling someone earlier, “The most disgusting part of the movie actually for me is seeing the brain bits in [Samson’s] beard.” That one, literally, I’m like, I can’t. But it could be any kind of food. It could be cantaloupe!

The skinning, watching that sequence all in, and when you get into the emotionality of it, it’s not the brutality [that gets me]. I think it’s less the visuals and more the fact that they’re just being tortured, but unfortunately, and conceptually, that is the scene, so there’s no getting around that. My editor [Jake Roberts] and I knew that we’d have to do a lot of modulating and editing and figuring that out. We didn’t know how much we’d have to do, but in the end, we knew we were really toeing a line, but we also knew that we weren’t going to be gratuitous or [making] torture porn or reveling in it.

And I love the way the Jimmys respond to this scene, because one’s throwing up, the other one’s in another world. To me, it points at, oh, this isn’t their nature actually; this is cult shit. The unfortunate thing is that the impact has to be there. So just the balance of, OK, maybe one person will walk out of the theater, but we can’t have 10. I don’t want anyone to walk out! I don’t want to hurt people in that way, but the impact has to be there, so it was a lot of back and forth.

Watching any zombie movie when things are bad in the world is very instructive.

[Laughs] Yeah.

In your film, we get to see more from the perspective of the infected, and how they view the living as threats. There’s a great line in the film about how their brains and bodies have been so infected by the virus, that they will see even a baby as a threat, and “who could see a baby as a threat?” I don’t like saying, “Oh, this is very timely and very prescient,” but it does feel that way. How do you, as a director, use those themes without hitting the audience over the head?

I think because they’re existential and perennial, because it’s not really specific about anything that’s happening right now, but the world is always a mess. Sometimes, we feel safer than not. Obviously, I think most Americans don’t feel very safe right now, and therefore, most people in the world who are tapped in because of the amount of influence America has don’t feel safe. So it is a time when we’re asking those big existential questions: How do I have control in a world that feels out of my control? How do I create meaning when everything feels meaningless?

The empathy that Kelson has and the hope that he has in humanity is why I love the movie, and I love the script and what moves me about it. It’s not just like, “Oh, him and Samson, they’re so fun.” It’s like, he’s actually doing what Samson is saying. Could you do the worst thing and still be saved? Can you still change? Can someone believe that you have the capacity to change? I think that’s really beautiful.

’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’Miya Mizuno

And then something like the Jimmys, which illuminate the absurdity of hive mind and the people that we allow to become our leaders.

Ridiculous hair! [Laughs]

There’s the incredible scene where Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal and the rest of the Jimmys see Kelson for the first time, and you really don’t know what Jack’s character is going to do and how he will react to him and how he might choose to put his belief in someone else who may not be what he seems to be.

This is a great moment because it brings up the question, “How much does Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal actually believe in what he’s saying?” But I think as you get further into that sequence, because then they meet — which everyone knows they’re going to meet, it’s in the trailer — and this is when I fell in love with Jimmy Crystal or felt like, “Oh, I can direct him now.” He really [just] wants to see his dad. He’s actually an incredibly lonely character. He’s a piece of shit, and something’s wrong with him deeply, and he’s not well, but there’s a part of him who’s like, “I actually thought you might be my dad.” Not even, “I thought you might be Satan, who is my father.” Part of it is I’m so lonely, and I hoped that my family was here.

And I think Kelson sees that really deeply, and it’s also a huge reason why I chose to shoot that scene the way I did, static and just sitting. I was like, “This is the most human you’re going to ever get this guy, so please pay attention,” or go to the bathroom if you need to, because big stuff’s coming!

But introducing that question of the depth and the specificity around his belief was really great, especially as it relates to Jimmy Ink’s [Erin Kellyman] journey, because she’s watching him shit bricks, and she’s like, “You’re full of shit.”

I think Ralph’s performance in Danny’s film is really beautiful, but this is a whole other level.

Yeah, we got a lot to do.

Obviously, we’re still in the middle of this award season, but what would you like to see in terms of recognition for Ralph’s performance here?

Award season is what it is. It’s meritocracy. But also, [this season] I had the most fun, I had the best position in award season where I was just like, “I’m not going to get nominated for anything, but I’m glad to be in the room.” I’m like, “I just met Tom Cruise,” so I had a great time.

It would be so cool if you got nominated for an Oscar. I think Amy Madigan getting recognized for “Weapons,” that gives me hope in humanity. Our industry’s unraveling minute to minute, and who knows what it’ll be in a year or two years or 10. But I think I agree with you, his work is extraordinary, and I think the idea of us, the voting body, being like “horror is where beautiful writing and direction and acting happens” would be really cool, and for that to be represented through his performance would be great.

Sony Pictures will release “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” in theaters on Friday, January 16.