Renton Returns

- Jake Taylor

HOUSEHOLD names have to start somewhere,and for Ewan McGregor, it all began 20 years ago with the 90s pop culture landmark, Train spotting.

When the then 25-year-old took on his breakthrough role as hopeful heroin addict Mark Renton in Danny Boyle’s harrowing film – regularly voted the greatest Scottish movie of all time – no one could have predicted that film’s cultural significance, nor McGregor’s subsequent career trajectory.

Time has flown in the world of film-making but there has always been an undercurrent of hope that Renton and his motley crew might one day reappear – and now, fans rejoice, that’s exactly what’s happened.

Once it was confirmed that Danny Boyle had begun filming Train spotting 2, starring all of the original cast, the internet went crazy. However, not everyone was so happy to hear the news.

The art of the sequel is tricky to master – especially when the original film has, over the years, developed such standing among audiences and critics alike. Could Train spotting’s near-faultless reputation be irreparably smeared by a lackluster follow-up?

“The script is so good – so, so good,” gushes McGregor. “I wouldn’t do it unless I thought it was exemplary. None of us would have done it. I know that was the general consensus. The original film is so well loved that if we did a rubbish sequel it would break my heart to tarnish that legacy. I couldn’t stomach that.”

It seems McGregor’s return, along with Johnny Lee Miller, Ewan Bremner and Robert Carlyle as the ferocious Francis Begbie, gave hope to the original film’s fans that Boyle’s arguably most ambitious film to date would be elevated to classic status just as quickly as its older brother.