28 Years Later: Danny Boyle’s New Zombie Flick Was Shot on an iPhone 15

Even though professional, cinema-quality integer cameras are present commonplace, they're mostly not tiny oregon compact. (Take a look astatine Arri's existent lineup, for example, with its Mini LF, utilized to seizure Deadpool & Wolverine.) However, Danny Boyle’s forthcoming zombie flick, 28 Years Later, was changeable implicit the summertime with a clump of adapted iPhone 15s, WIRED has learned, making the Hollywood thriller, with its fund of $75 million, the biggest movie to day filmed with smartphones.

Starring Killing Eve's Jodie Comer, adjacent James Bond favourite Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes, 28 Years Later, owed for merchandise successful June 2025, is the long-awaited follow-up to 28 Days Later—the 2002 genre-defining movie that was the archetypal to represent zombies arsenic scary accelerated alternatively than lumbering—and 2007's 28 Weeks Later. Boyle is joined by cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle; they won Oscars unneurotic successful 2009 for their deed Slumdog Millionaire. Mantle was besides cinematographer connected the archetypal 28 Days Later, arsenic good arsenic Boyle’s films Trance (2013), T2 Trainspotting (2017), and 127 Hours (2010).

There’s a tech communicative arc to Boyle and Mantle choosing Apple’s log-profile powerhouse for 28 Years Later: The pair’s 2002 kick-off movie, 28 Days Later, was filmed with an innovative-for-the-time integer camera—one of the archetypal Hollywood diagnostic films changeable with a Canon XL-1. The lust-worthy $4,000 prosumer camcorder had interchangeable lenses and wrote information to MiniDV (digital video) tapes.

Principal filming for 28 Years Later wrapped astatine the extremity of August, and until present the accumulation has kept nether wraps the information that the movie was changeable with smartphones, with the film’s unit being asked to signed NDAs preventing the disclosure of this detail. But a hint has been online for immoderate months: A azygous paparazzi photograph retired of a portfolio of 150, changeable successful July, shows Comer lasting adjacent to a movie camera that, astatine archetypal glance, appears to beryllium a high-end exemplary specified arsenic those made by German shaper Arri, a modular prime for nonrecreational cinematographers caller and old.

But zooming successful reveals that the agelong lens isn’t attached to a regular camera assemblage oregon a high-end modular strategy specified arsenic the Achtel 9x7. Instead, it is connected to a protective cage holding thing that could beryllium an iPhone, a nonrecreational camera relation not progressive with the movie told WIRED.

The usage of Apple smartphones arsenic the main camera strategy connected 28 Years Later was subsequently confirmed to WIRED by respective radical connected with the movie, detailing that the peculiar exemplary utilized to sprout was the iPhone 15 Pro Max. (Evidently, filming took spot excessively aboriginal for Boyle and Mantle to get their hands connected the caller iPhone 16 series.)

The iPhone successful the paparazzi photograph is held by an aluminum cage fitted with a lens attachment adapter. Beast makes specified cages and adapters, adjusted with distinctive reddish knobs (there’s specified an accommodation knob disposable successful the photograph), and its latest DOF (depth of field) adapter allows the attachment of full-frame DSLR lenses to smartphones. The lens-shaped adapter, released successful March, projects the representation from the DSLR lens onto the aboveground of its screen, and the smartphone records this projection.

Several arthouse films person been changeable with iPhones, including Sean Baker’s Tangerine (2015) and the Steven Soderbergh play Unsane (2018), but these movies were limited-release, low-budget offerings compared to 28 Years Later. The caller film’s $75 cardinal budget is lone portion of the franchise’s total, with 28 Years Later being the archetypal of a new trilogy; each 3 coming zombie films are being scripted by screenwriter Alex Garland, who is reuniting with Boyle and Mantle aft helming Civil War, released earlier this year.

Another cardinal squad subordinate from the 2002 movie is backmost for astatine slightest 1 movie successful the caller trilogy: Long earlier his razor-blades-in-flat-caps relation successful the gritty TV amusement Peaky Blinders—or his Oscar-winning, Bhagavad Gita–quoting show successful Oppenheimer (2023)—Cillian Murphy’s breakout relation was arsenic the pb histrion successful 28 Days Later. A full-frontal wide changeable of him lying bare connected a gurney was Murphy’s instauration to the limelight. (Murphy didn’t look successful the Boyle-produced 2007 sequel 28 Weeks Later. This movie, starring Robert Carlyle and Idris Elba, and directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, was changeable connected film, and enjoys the aforesaid cult presumption arsenic the first.)

There are nary details yet connected the crippled for 28 Years Later, oregon whether Murphy stars successful each 3 movies of the upcoming trilogy.

In the archetypal movie, Murphy, past conscionable 26, played Jim, a confused bicycle messenger waking from a coma successful a deserted London infirmary a period aft being deed and injured successful an unseen crash. In memorable scenes of a desolate London, Jim walks from the infirmary and dilatory discovers he’s 1 of the fewer not to person caught a microorganism that causes “infecteds” to feast connected quality flesh.

The highly contagious zombie-creating virus—billed arsenic Rage, communicable done blood, taking clasp wrong seconds—had been released into the chaotic 28 days earlier Jim’s crash, erstwhile anti-vivisection activists freed chimps from a top-secret primate probe facility.

The crack-of-dawn scenes of an eerily quiescent Rage-ravaged cardinal London were tricky to film, arsenic metropolis officials successful 2001 imposed strict clip constraints connected the moviemakers. Filming with bulky, unwieldy accepted movie cameras would person taken ages to get the aggregate choky angles required, truthful Boyle and Mantle took the immense hazard of shooting with 8 lightweight Canon integer camcorders—which, astatine that time, were classed arsenic entry-level ENG (electronic quality gathering) cameras, alternatively than arsenic Hollywood-capable. Using the XL1 meant sacrificing high-quality movie banal for comparatively cold, low-resolution integer footage saved to MiniDV; fortuitously, the movie’s harsh look became intrinsic to 28 Days Later’s much-copied aesthetic.

But determination was a downside to going digital: Unlike film, which tin beryllium upscaled for today’s high-definition screens, footage primitively changeable connected DV tapes can’t beryllium arsenic easy remastered. This disparity is brought into literal crisp absorption by the movie’s last scenes, which were changeable connected celluloid with an Arri camera for a distinctively dreamier look. After restoration, the portion of the movie changeable connected movie looks pristine, portion the remainder of it, changeable connected the Canon XL1, looks, well, digital.

Such a examination is not casual to marque now, arsenic the movie was withdrawn from streaming services successful January erstwhile Disney mislaid the rights to the archetypal movie. 28 Weeks Later, for which Disney inactive owns the rights, remains streamable. In a bidding warfare with Warner Bros., Sony acquired the close to concern the caller trilogy, but the institution has yet to uncover whether it volition merchandise a restored 28 Days Later.

The DV footage of the 2002 movie was changeable astatine modular explanation (SD) of 480, little than the 720 high-definition (HD) of different video cameras disposable astatine the time. In this time and age, wherever 4K is normal, adjacent HD is considered blurry; however, the determination to sprout with the prosumer camcorder astatine a solution of 480 connected to MiniDV paid off, and Murphy’s bewildered locomotion done Westminster is inactive genuinely iconic.

“If I had changeable those [scenes] connected a large negative, it would person looked perfectly stunning,” Mantle told the mag American Cinematographer successful 2003. But helium said it would person taken a fortnight to movie alternatively of 4 days. “We would not person been allowed to sprout and instrumentality up truthful overmuch abstraction [required for shooting with movie cameras] for 2 weeks astatine specified a delicate clip earlier early-morning unreserved hour,” Mantle stressed.

Andrew Macdonald, the shaper of the archetypal movie arsenic good arsenic of the coming trilogy, said successful 2002: “We were capable to sprout for an hr oregon truthful earlier the metropolis got excessively engaged for america to clasp backmost the traffic. When you spot the full of Westminster Bridge and the Embankment each closed for you, and the postulation stopped, and you can’t perceive anything, it was thrilling.”

Placing a reddish double-decker autobus connected its broadside extracurricular Downing Street hadn’t been okayed by authorities, but arsenic nary metropolis officials turned up for the sprout that morning, the props squad went up anyway.

Filming took spot successful July 2001, 3 weeks earlier the real-life horrors of 9/11. Moviemakers contiguous apt wouldn’t get support for specified a mock-up successful a highly security-sensitive location. Shot connected a fund of $8 million, the movie was a sleeper deed worldwide, earning $84.6 million.

In summation to utilizing the iPhone 15 Pro Max arsenic the main camera, immoderate scenes successful 28 Years Later were changeable with action cams strapped to workplace animals—what 1 mightiness word “GoatPros,” then.

Boyle and Mantle were contacted for this portion but person yet to respond. WIRED understands that the producers of 28 Years Later looped successful Apple earlier filming started, and that the Cupertino institution provided method assistance to the moviemakers.

The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max tin sprout Apple ProRes video successful log colour illustration astatine 4K resolution. ProRes is Apple’s video codec, released successful 2007 and thereafter wide adopted by video and cinema professionals. Log (short for “logarithmic”) footage preserves much representation accusation successful the highlights and shadows, allowing for greater flexibility successful the postproduction editing of colors, contrast, and highlights. Shooting astatine 60 fps successful ProRes connected an iPhone is data-hungry, truthful it is usually done with outer storage.

Log files consecutive retired of the iPhone 15, oregon immoderate camera, look flat, with debased opposition and saturation. The files indispensable beryllium edited successful programs specified arsenic Adobe Premiere oregon DaVinci Resolve, wherever opposition and colour code are applied, achieving the desired saturation and wide look. Apple introduced the quality to sprout with the ProRes codec connected the iPhone 12 Pro, but lone the iPhone 15 Pro, the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and the new 16 tin besides sprout successful log.

The 2nd offering of the caller Boyle/Garland trilogy—listed arsenic 28 Years Later Part II: The Bone Temple—is presently shooting, and is being directed by The Marvels and Candyman manager Nia DaCosta.

Any caller Boyle movie is astir guaranteed clip successful the captious spotlight, but by shooting this latest zombie flick connected a high-end iPhone, the merchandise of 28 Years Later successful 2025 volition besides apt boost Apple’s cinematic thoroughfare cred, too.