John Boyega reveals that he’s helping write Attack the Block 2. Boyega enjoyed an early breakout role in Joe Cornish’s sci-fi movie Attack the Block. Earlier in August, it was confirmed that the 2011 cult classic will receive a long-awaited sequel with Cornish and Boyega both returning.
The first Attack the Block memorably followed a gang of South London teenagers defending their building against invading aliens. Also starring Jodie Whitaker and Nick Frost, the movie was a very modest hit, grossing just $6 million worldwide. But critics loved the movie, which currently holds a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and its reputation as a cult classic has only grown over the years. And of course the film helped catapult Boyega to future success as a star of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
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Now Boyega is set to revisit his acting roots by returning to the role of Moses over ten years after Attack the Block. But Boyega won’t only act in the long-awaited Attack the Block 2, he’ll also produce and have a hand in writing the film. As the actor revealed to Collider recently (via THR), he is helping to work out the sci-fi movie's story along with writer-director Cornish. He said:
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. And then, also, there’s different perspectives in writing it, with Joe having his perspective and me having mine. London has changed so much, in so many different ways, over the years since the first movie. We’re just trying to make sure we explore all of that while bringing in a whole different vibe to that crazy ass first movie that we made.
It’s indeed no surprise to see Boyega take a more active role in writing the script for Attack the Block 2, given the clout he's obtained thanks to Star Wars, and given how important the character of Moses is to him personally. Boyega in fact talked about why he chose to take on Attack the Block 2 in the first place, telling Screen Rant recently that he’s not a “sequel person” but with Moses, “I want to see him. I want to see where he's at for the past few years.” Boyega of course was critical of the way his Finn character was treated in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and that experience no doubt also played a part in his taking a hands-on approach with the Attack the Block 2 script.
Plot details on Attack the Block 2 are naturally being kept under wraps for the time being. But the film obviously will have to deal with the original characters being ten years older than they were in the first movie. Certainly Cornish and Boyega can come up with some good ideas about where Moses and company are over a decade after they first battled aliens in Attack the Block. Attack the Block 2 does not yet have a release date.