‘Inappropriate’ to shoot Danny Boyle horror film in church, chancellor rules

Aug 28, 2024 by Jill

by Shiranikha Herbert, Church Times:

Film-makers refused permission to use 14th-century church in star-studded sequel.

FILM-MAKERS have been refused permission to shoot a horror scene in a 14th-century church in Northumberland, intended for inclusion in the forthcoming star-studded sequel 28 Years Later, directed by the Academy Award-winning British director Danny Boyle.

The Consistory Court of the diocese of Newcastle refused to grant a faculty for a Grade I listed church, St Mary the Virgin, Morpeth, to be used for filming on the grounds that the proposed scene was “intrinsically objectionable” and that it would be “inappropriate” for it to be shot in a sacred space.

The new film, which is due to be released next year, completes the “28 Days” trilogy and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Jack O’Connell, and Ralph Fiennes. All three films are directed by Mr Boyle.

The petitioners for the faculty were the Rector of Morpeth, the Revd Simon White; a churchwarden and ex officio member of the PCC, Dr Andrew Mowat; and the supervising location manager of DNA Films, Camilla Stephenson. Ms Stephenson said that she hoped that “a little movie magic” could be created in the church through a story that would lead to light, but which would have “to begin . . . with darkness”.

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