Trainspotting Director: No Sci-Fi Sex

SHAGGING AMONG STARS Boyle, Loder

Director Danny Boyle is all about heroin junkie movie sex (Trainspotting)—even zombie movie sex (28 Days Later)—but he is not into space sex.

At a screening Wednesday evening at Tribeca Cinemas, MTV's elder statesman Kurt Loder asked about the lack of carnal bliss in space movies in general and in Boyle's new film Sunshine (opening July 20) in particular.

"There's very few films that show relationships in space, like romance of any kind, which is an obvious thing with a young cast like this—Chris Evans, Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne. You think it would develop romantically," Boyle said. "We tried it, we wrote some stuff, and it was just embarrassing." As further proof, the director added, "In 2010, the sequel to 2001, there's a relationship ... and it doesn't really work. It's just a bit cringing. It's either so serious, space, or everything's so small, everything's so reduced."

Asked about the film genres for which he thinks he's best suited, Boyle admitted that romance is not his bailiwick. "I don't think I'm very good at romance, sadly—in my own life and professionally," he said. "But I'd love to do a musical."

In an unrelated note, Boyle says he's going to try and do a sequel to Trainspotting, which will be based on the characters being 20 to 25 years older, "so they are deliberately middle-aged. The hedonists that have abused and taken their bodies to the absolute limit of tolerance are at an age where you can no longer do that—which I have personal experience with, also."

Photo: Getty Images