Danny Boyle Confirms "Headf*ck" The Beach Prequel Is Coming

Leonardo DiCaprio's real star-making turn will be revived for TV...

The Beach Leonardo DiCaprio
20th Century Fox

Here's a strange one for you: how do you make a prequel to a movie, starring the same character, set twenty years after the original?

Usually, you don't, but you're not Danny Boyle and he can do whatever he likes.

In actual fact, this scenario refers to a spin-off project of Boyle's brilliant, mind-bending thriller The Beach, which is going to be handled by writer/director/actor Amy Seimetz (last seen in Pet Sematary, but who has directing and writing gigs like The Girlfriend Experience to her name already).

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Boyle revealed to The Independent on the marketing trail for Yesterday that she's leading a prequel project for the movie that really gave us a hint that DiCaprio was more than just the beautiful boy from Titanic. And by the sound of it, it's a bit of a mindf*ck. Well, a lot of a one, to be honest:

The Beach may come back. [Seimetz] has taken The Beach and made a prequel for television. It’s the same character but it’s set now, so 20 years later – it’s a bit of a headf***. It’s intriguing when you see it. I’ve read the first two scripts. I don’t know if they’ll have the courage to do it at FX, but you never know."

Seimetz has a deal with FX as of last June that allows her to develop new TV projects exclusively for the network, so they presumably have dibs on it.

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Whoever makes it, it definitely sounds like an intriguing one. And it's not the first time this has been mentioned, as author Alex Garland revealed that a revival was in the works not so long ago:

"Well, someone very talented is currently working on a possible adaptation, so I'm really interested to see what they write."

Definitely one to keep an eye out for. If only so we can find out how that whole prequel set in the future thing works.

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