Yes, it features “Lust for Life”

July 26, 2016 9:06 AM

T2: Trainspotting 2 [YouTube] [Teaser Trailer] Director Danny Boyle reunites the original cast: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle. [via: Pitchfork Media]
posted by Fizz (63 comments total)

Lovely!
posted by Splunge at 9:14 AM on July 26, 2016

what
this is a thing?

I read Skagboys, the prequel to Trainspotting. It was really good I thought, and provided a lot more social and political context to the original (which was really a loosely linked collection of stories more than a novel).
posted by thelonius at 9:15 AM on July 26, 2016

Not going to lie, my list of cinematic things that shaped my taste in the 90s coming back again is still topped by by Guy Ritchie's very Guy-Ritchie-looking treatment of King Arthur (that it features both Charles Dance and Aiden Gillen is a significant bonus).

I've decided to be hopeful for both of these things instead of expecting disappointment.
posted by sparklemotion at 9:15 AM on July 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

I can't define it, but I know it when I see it. This is Porno.
Please let it be good.
posted by rokusan at 9:15 AM on July 26, 2016 [10 favorites]

allegedly loosely based on Porno
posted by thelonius at 9:17 AM on July 26, 2016

That King Arthur trailer is absolutely ridiculous. Of course I'm going to watch it.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 9:19 AM on July 26, 2016 [9 favorites]

That's not King Arthur. It's obviously a Game of Fookin' Thrones movie.

Looks glorious, too.
posted by rokusan at 9:20 AM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

It would have been better if they had called it Porno
posted by My Dad at 9:21 AM on July 26, 2016

I saw this yesterday and I was like, "Huh, this makes me a little sad. And I did not know anyone wanted to see the sequel to Trainspotting."
posted by Kitteh at 9:21 AM on July 26, 2016

Hahahaha for Skagboys and this comment from the reviews.
posted by lalochezia at 9:21 AM on July 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

I read Skagboys, the prequel to Trainspotting. It was really good I thought, and provided a lot more social and political context to the original (which was really a loosely linked collection of stories more than a novel).

Huh, I thought the prequel was Glue. I'll have to check out this other novel...

Porno, if I remember, wasn't very good. Entertaining cover of a blow up doll boxed up - great to be reading on the public bus.
posted by alex_skazat at 9:23 AM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I want to believe.

Given that so many (everyone?) is on board, I'm hoping that's a sign that it is being done right, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it. In any event, they've more than earned my leap of faith.
posted by Capt. Renault at 9:24 AM on July 26, 2016

So, is it set primarily in the afterlife, or in depressing church basements/whatever the UK version of grim locations for AA are?
posted by praemunire at 9:24 AM on July 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, I am gonna eat so much popcorn at that King Arthur movie. The most popcorn. All the butter.

I am going into this whole Trainspotting 2 thing unspoiled and uninformed and generally positively interested. I kind of feel like there was no pressing need on the part of McGregor, Miller, or Carlyle to actually do it unless it was a really compelling script.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:25 AM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

It would have been better if they had called it Porno

I just hope it's not another This is England '86, the mini-series. Personally.

Was Renton even in Porno? My memory is fuzzy, but it just felt like The Sickboy Show. I think.
posted by alex_skazat at 9:26 AM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Was Renton even in Porno?

He was.
posted by howfar at 9:28 AM on July 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

There's really only two ways to do an Arthur movie now- immaculately researched, post-Roman Brythonic meeting of pre-Christian and early Christian mythos, or balls-out insane. I would have preferred the first, but I'll take the second.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 9:29 AM on July 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Porno, if I remember, wasn't very good.

My memory of it is hazy, but wasn't Renton only marginally in it as well? The movie would only be a very loose adaptation indeed if Renton is now front and centre.

Also: I need to know if Diane will be in this. I've looked, but can't find anything.
posted by Capt. Renault at 9:30 AM on July 26, 2016

I'm hesitating between ooh! and hmm... Danny Boyle's usually cool and I trust him to make it good. And Trainspotting was a big part of my personal movie watching history. Is it really necessary, though? But yeah, this the most trailer-for-a-trailer thing I've seen. I don't know what to think!
posted by sapagan at 9:34 AM on July 26, 2016

I have not read the novel, but I assume this movie is two hours of what made the original great.

Trainspotting 2: Begbie Glasses Everyone
posted by zippy at 9:36 AM on July 26, 2016 [8 favorites]

I'm also desperately hoping they make fun of Sickboy's extremely out -of-fashion hairstyle, which worked for a mid-nineties film, oh, not know. You'd think he'd have a huge unkempt beard, and a slicked barbershop haircut.

Also Lou Reed is dead, and Iggy Pop isn't. That's gonna be low hanging fruit.

And Tommy is still dead. Poor Tommy.
posted by alex_skazat at 9:37 AM on July 26, 2016

Trainspotting 2: Begbie Glasses Everyone

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Rawwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!"

*kick*
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:39 AM on July 26, 2016

So, at the bottom of this thread you get this ripped-from-an-Irvine-Welsh-novel line, which I hear in my head being delivered by Ewan McGregor:

« Older "vomit is the limit of comfortable punishment"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 9:45 AM on July 26, 2016 [8 favorites]

T2: The movie goes online February 3, 2017. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Sick Boy begins to learn at a geometric rate. He becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, February 4. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
posted by maxsparber at 9:57 AM on July 26, 2016 [21 favorites]

oh man, but this is going to ruin everything, I mean now what am I going to do when I want to refer to Terminator 2 using only two characters, everybody will be confused
posted by koeselitz at 9:58 AM on July 26, 2016

(maxsparber's joke was much better than mine. carry on)
posted by koeselitz at 10:00 AM on July 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Mrs. Mosley and our lovely daughter have chosen "Once Upon A Time" as their Mommy-daughter indulgence, which is cool. And every time pass through and see Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin, I get a goofy grin on my face. Him returning as a much older Begbie is so very tantalizing.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 10:04 AM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I see the January release date and feel some trepidation. January is the movie graveyard....
posted by chimaera at 10:05 AM on July 26, 2016

I see the January release date and feel some trepidation. January is the movie graveyard....

To some extent, that's true. But if you were to divide the year into three sections, this probably isn't seen as awards bait (Sep-Dec) and it's not a popcorn blockbuster (May-August). This is a cold-as-fuck cult film sequel, which makes January a very sensible place to put it.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 10:08 AM on July 26, 2016

Fun trivia I never tire of, Irvine Welsh has an MBA
posted by Damienmce at 10:12 AM on July 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

Who genuinely thinks this story needs to be told?
posted by lumpenprole at 10:15 AM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Porno, naturally, had a lot of explicit sex in it I don't know how a movie can get around. The sex in Porno is a big, dull, unsexy prop for the character development. But Danny Boyle can work some wonders, I guess. Heroin was a pretty dull, unsexy prop in the book, too.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:20 AM on July 26, 2016

I saw this yesterday and I was like, "Huh, this makes me a little sad. And I did not know anyone wanted to see the sequel to Trainspotting."

I'm the same age as Ewan McGregor, so I'm thinking my excitement and curiosity about the new movie is more to do with middle-aged nostalgia, or perhaps I'm anticipating a movie that talks about what it's like to be a middle-aged man in 2016. Not sure if that is interesting or exciting for anyone else, though!
posted by My Dad at 10:38 AM on July 26, 2016

I'll admit up front that I haven't read Porno. But I wish they would do Trainspotting 2 as a completely straight depiction of life 20 years later for a bunch of drugged-out club kids:

One of them, to be blunt, would be dead.

Another would be in and out of jail, and when he's out he's one of those scary aggressive guys who sells nitrous at rock festivals or something.

One would be, by all appearances, an extremely successful engineer at a computer security startup, but as the movie goes on it becomes clear that all of his wealth is in non-liquid company stock and he's in debt up to his eyeballs trying to keep up those appearances.

One would be holding down some boring clerical or para-professional job and attending NA meetings on the regular, watching TV a couple hours a night, saving for retirement, maybe doing a book club or a rec soccer league, and just generally turning into everything his younger self would've despised.

The premise is that the in-and-out-of-jail one wants to get the remaining gang back together for "one more score," but in fact the entire movie is the two guys who've got their lives together avoiding that guy like the plague, because there's no fucking way we're getting back into that life, thankyouverymuch.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 10:41 AM on July 26, 2016 [13 favorites]

Who genuinely thinks this story needs to be told?

I don't believe many people think it needs to be told. But I know I am looking forward to seeing it, and I bet others are as well.
posted by joelhunt at 10:49 AM on July 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

The premise is that the in-and-out-of-jail one wants to get the remaining gang back together for "one more score," but in fact the entire movie is the two guys who've got their lives together avoiding that guy like the plague

May I recommend The World's End?
posted by zippy at 10:50 AM on July 26, 2016 [12 favorites]

GOING BACK TO ROMFORD
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:54 AM on July 26, 2016

Given that so many (everyone?) is on board, I'm hoping that's a sign that it is being done right, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it. In any event, they've more than earned my leap of faith.

Yeah, everyone was on board for "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2," sigh.
posted by Melismata at 11:14 AM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, everyone was on board for "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2," sigh.

Point taken, but -- with all due respect -- perhaps Nia Vardalos is in a different place career-wise than McGregor, Boyle, or Carlyle, a place with fewer options? The Trainspotting cast may have the luxury of saying no to a project they feel isn't right.

I stand to be corrected on this, but wasn't there an earlier go at a Trainspotting sequel that McGregor pretty much killed because he thought it wasn't as good as it should have been?
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:31 AM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I don't know that I'm remembering it accurately, and I haven't read Porno, but I feel like it's strongly implied at the end of Trainspotting that Begbie's gonna get killed for not having the money Renton stole.
posted by wabbittwax at 11:47 AM on July 26, 2016

For all the good that's done me, I might as well have stuck it up my arse!
posted by Artw at 11:48 AM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

it's strongly implied at the end of Trainspotting that Begbie's gonna get killed for not having the money Renton stole

well, I want to stay away from spoilers, but this doesn't happen: Begbie is very much alive in Porno
posted by thelonius at 12:04 PM on July 26, 2016

And Spud decides to learn about the history of Leith! That's gonna be some great movie watching there! ****SNOOOORE****
posted by alex_skazat at 12:18 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I am SO excited for this. Trainspotting is one of my favorite books/movies, and I've been a major Irvine Welsh fan since I was a kid. The ending of Trainspotting is definitely in my top 3 movie moments, as Renton steals the money and says his final monologue while Born Slippy plays. It gives me shivers every single time. It also doesn't help that when I shave my head I look just like Ewen McGregor in the movie. I hope this sequel maintains the same magic as the original. I thought Porno was good!
posted by gucci mane at 12:30 PM on July 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Renton was in Porno. Are you kidding? Not to get all spoilery about a novel that's been around for a while, but he's a main character.

And Johnny Depp is going to be in the film adaptation of London Fields.

Can't wait for Fight Club 2.
posted by adept256 at 12:33 PM on July 26, 2016

Who genuinely thinks this story needs to be told?

Storytelling about good-looking scammers will never get old. There's even a thread going on AskMe about the subject at the present moment.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 12:38 PM on July 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

And Spud decides to learn about the history of Leith! That's gonna be some great movie watching there!

Renton knows Kung Fu now.
posted by Artw at 12:42 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm looking forward to an update of Renton's great speech about being Scottish for IndyRef2.
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:56 PM on July 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

And Johnny Depp is going to be in the film adaptation of London Fields.

Are they doing another version already? Because there is already one made and he's not in it.
posted by Kitteh at 1:17 PM on July 26, 2016

Read that wikipedia a little closer, Kitteh
posted by fungible at 1:27 PM on July 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

HOISTED BY MY OWN PETARD
posted by Kitteh at 1:35 PM on July 26, 2016 [6 favorites]

I cannae wait... though I'm gutted that I live in Leith and have been in Embra most of the time they've been filming and have totally failed to spot them filming even once.
posted by penguin pie at 2:27 PM on July 26, 2016

I've had a pint in the Porno pub.
posted by Artw at 2:35 PM on July 26, 2016

Other fun random Leith facts: it had one if the worlds first golf courses and consequently Leaf Links in GTA: Vice City is named after it.
posted by Artw at 2:38 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Also Hibernian have the world's greatest team song...

"All together now lads, 'sorrow, sorrow, sorrow, sorrow...'"
posted by howfar at 2:49 PM on July 26, 2016

Curious to see if The Volley appears. No longer the Volunteer Arms, I think it's now on its second gentrified incarnation called something like The Mousetrap.
posted by penguin pie at 3:07 PM on July 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Renton was in Porno. Are you kidding? Not to get all spoilery about a novel that's been around for a while, but he's a main character.

Yeah sorry, I read the book when it came out in hardcover, but only once. And that was 14 years ago or so, so I'm a little fuzzy. The book just didn't give me the greatest of impressions. Trainspotting I would read at least once a year, as it was that good. Perhaps that's why I identify with the Renton of Trainspotting and not of Porno - they seem two entirely different people. I think Renton made a paragraph of an appearance in Glue, but it seemed like the ol' Rentboy himself.

Welsh's books seem so hit and miss. Maribou Stork Nightmares is genius (and entirely unfilmable). Ecstacy seemed a little lukewarm. Acid House was great. Glue was like a B- version of Trainspotting, but way more straightforward.

After Porno though, I thought I'd take a break from his work, as it just seemed tired and stagnant - I distinctly remember thinking he wrote Porno to f- with his fanbase. Like - "Oh you LOVE these characters, eh? Well, f- you, they're going to be front and center in a badly written book!" (gives two fingered salute). Kind of like a way to throw away something that's beyond him and his writing and start over. I guess... I was wrong? How may books in the Chronicles of Leif can this guy write? Like, Begbie now has his own book?

There's also just so many books about drugs I don't take I can read.
posted by alex_skazat at 3:11 PM on July 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

Every time I read an Irvine Welsh book, I get a few chapters in and inevitably start thinking in Scots. I wasn't terribly thrilled about Porno, but I'll watch almost anything with Ewan McGregor.
posted by Ruki at 6:03 PM on July 26, 2016

Guys I just found a scene from Trainspotting 2
posted by zippy at 6:56 PM on July 26, 2016

Based on this trailer, I predict an epic money grab of a worthless film second only to "Escape From L.A."
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 9:15 PM on July 26, 2016

There's also just so many books about drugs I don't take I can read.

Well there is only one way to fix that problem, now isn't there?
posted by Literaryhero at 9:29 PM on July 26, 2016

a worthless film second only to "Escape From L.A."

I refute you thusly:

– What would you say to all of us who believed in you, who looked up to you, who thought you stood for right over wrong, good over evil? Be my guest. What do you have to say, Plissken?
– Call me Snake.
posted by zippy at 10:24 PM on July 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Joey Buttafoucault: "I wish they would do Trainspotting 2 as a completely straight depiction of life 20 years later for a bunch of drugged-out club kids:"

One of them would be dead.

One would be a highly successful businessman with a wife and kids and a house, and would comment on YouTube oldskool jungle/hardcore/techno/trance videos complaining about his mortgage and his job and his wife and kids, and talking about how those club years were the peak of his life.

One would be a low-level office worker stuck in a boring office job with a wife and kids and a house, and would comment on YouTube oldskool jungle/hardcore/techno/trance videos complaining about his mortgage and his job and his wife and kids, and talking about how those club years were the peak of his life.

One would be a blue collar worker with a hard job with a wife and kids and an apartment, and would comment on YouTube oldskool jungle/hardcore/techno/trance videos complaining about his rent and his job and his wife and kids, and talking about how those club years were the peak of his life.

And Begbie wouldn't comment on electronic music videos, because "I could never stand that beepy bloopy shite!"
posted by Bugbread at 6:21 AM on July 27, 2016 [1 favorite]