More than a decade after his 2011 triumph in Attack the Block, its star John Boyega is teaming up with writer/director Joe Cornish on a follow-up to the alien-invasion movie. In that original film, Boyega played the lead role of Moses, a young gang leader in London who mobilizes his posse to thwart an invasion by aliens.
Attack the Block marked Cornish’s debut as a writer-director as well as being an early showcase for Boyega’s acting abilities. The film was also acclaimed for the way it addressed some of the social issues that drove disaffected young Londoners of color—aliens of a sort themselves—into gang activities.
“We’ve collaborated heavily on making a story that makes sense for Moses and the other characters, and the new characters that will be coming up in the sequel too,” Boyega told Collider interviewer Christina Radish. “And then, also, there’s different perspectives in writing it, with Joe having his perspective and me having mine.”
Boyega and Cornish already have the narrative roughed out for the new film, says the actor. The story will, he adds, “blow the dust off” the original script and describe how Moses has aged and grown over the past eleven years in a London that has also changed considerably.
“We’re just tryin’ to make sure we explore all of that while bringing in a whole different vibe to that crazy ass first movie that we made,” Boyega told Collider.
No release date for Attack the Block 2 has yet been announced, but Boyega promises audiences they won’t have to wait too long: “We’re quite close.We’re gettin’ there. Obviously, we don’t wanna release no dates to anybody because we wanna take care of the creative process. We have the main spine of the story, but we’re still in the lab, just making sure the story is right. Story is everything. But it won’t be too long. I’ve given them the drums to speed up the process. Hopefully soon, we’ll have an announcement for when we’ll be around London.”
Boyega, who appeared recently as Finn in three Star Wars sequels, will next appear as King Ghazo in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King, which will be released on September 16.
