Attack the Block made a bunch of waves when it landed in 2011. The British comedy/horror introduced the world to future Star Wars icon John Boyega, showed some seriously impressive VFX on a restricted budget, and received glowing reviews from critics who compared it to District 9 and Reservoir Dogs.
Sadly that hype didn’t translate into box office success. Attack the Block made just $6.4 million on a $13 million budget and plans for a sequel seemed to be quickly shelved. But the movie has snowballed in reputation over the years, resulting in the unexpected announcement last summer that director Joe Cornish is writing and directing Attack the Block 2, with Boyega returning to the role that made his name.
Boyega attended the Nope premiere last night and gave us an update on what’s going on. When asked how things were going, he said:
“We’re in the lab. We’re cooking, we’re cooking. I sat down with Joe Cornish just literally a few weeks ago. So expect some news soon. We’re still in development but we’re cooking something real sweet. We’ll have something soon.”
Read between the lines a little and this doesn’t sound like especially great news. We’re now more than a year on from the official announcement, so you’d expect there to be a script ready to go by now, and potentially a shooting schedule penciled in.
We loved Attack the Block and want to see its scope expanded outwards, so let’s hope the wheels start spinning a little faster on this. After all, we’re now 11 years on from the first movie and at this rate Attack the Block 2 is starting to sound like a 2024 release. Fingers crossed the project comes together fast.