'Trainspotting 2' officially underway

Los Angeles: The sequel to 1996 hit film "Trainspotting" is officially underway with director Danny Boyle returning at the helm.

The original cast members such as Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner and Robert Carlyle are also back to reprise their respective roles, said The Hollywood Reporter.

John Hodge, who wrote the script for the original adaptation, is also back as writer.

The original movie adapted the 1993 novel by Irvine Welsh and told of group of lower income heroin users in Edinburgh drifting through their lives.

Sony Pictures co-chair Tom Rothman leaned on his longstanding relationship with Boyle to make the deal happen.

McGregor was the movie's narrator and lead, surrounded by Miller's Sick Boy, a drug dealer, Carlyle's Begbie, a violent sociopath, and Bremner's Spud, a dim but genial friend.

TriStar Pictures announced on December 4 that the studio had acquired worldwide rights to the sequel.

Considered among the best British films ever made, the original film launched McGregor's career and put Boyle on the world stage.

Boyle has talked of making a sequel for several years, ever since Welsh wrote a follow-up book titled "Porno".

Hodge wrote an original script for the project, which takes a look at the Welsh-created characters 20 years after the events of the original movie.

"Like almost everyone my age, I had the 'Choose Life' poster on my university dorm room wall. I have wanted to work with Danny ever since, so the opportunity to collaborate on the sequel is truly a dream come true," said TriStar president Hannah Minghella, who calls "Trainspotting" a seminal movie for her.

"It's been 20 years since we met these characters and John Hodge's screenplay brilliantly explores what's happened to them?and to us?in the intervening years. We are grateful to Tom and

Hannah for their support and we can?t wait to get going," Boyle said.