Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine” may not have lit up the box office when it dropped in 2007, but over the years, it’s built a quiet legacy as one of the more ambitious and visually striking sci-fi films of its era.
Boyle has now revealed that “Sunshine” was nearly the start of something bigger. The filmmaker, whose “28 Years Later” releases in just a few weeks, tells Collider that “Sunshine” was originally envisioned as the first part of a trilogy.
Originally, when we were doing it, Alex [Garland] wrote two other parts. It was supposed to be a trilogy. He [Garland] only wrote an outline. [But] it was a planetary trilogy. It was to do with the sun itself, with two other stories.
While Boyle admits he “can’t remember [the plot] in enough detail,” he still vividly recalls that “an extraordinary idea in one of them” involved “looking outside and moving.” The sequel plans were scrapped, largely due to Sunshine’s disappointing box office numbers. “We might well have done it, yeah,” he added. “The movie did no business at all!”
The sci-fi thriller, starring Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rose Byrne, and Cliff Curtis, followed a group of astronauts on a high-stakes mission to reignite the dying sun in the year 2057.
Despite the film’s commercial struggles, Boyle remains proud of the film — even if audiences didn’t initially get on board.
lLook, I love the film. I really love the film. Some of that film, I just think, ‘wow, did I do that?’ It’s like, yeah you did! […] I meet a lot of people — and there are many films I’ve made people don’t think this about — but ‘Sunshine’ is one they really, genuinely think about and really love the film.
What I found most interesting about “Sunshine,” which I admired more than loved, is that it begins as a cerebral, Kubrick-inspired meditation on humanity, but quickly morphs into something far more chaotic and unsettling. It’s a tonal shift that divided audiences at the time, but in hindsight, the film still lingers in my head, it was a bold swing. A rewatch might be in order.