He's not entirely joking. Boyle and Hodge may have cringed at those crass billboards back in London, but they've come to appreciate producer Macdonald's refusal to let Trainspottingbecome another twee curiosity on the art-house circuit. ''In Britain, everybody tends to think so small,'' sniffs Macdonald, who's still smarting over Shallow Grave's indecent U.S. burial (a mere $2.1 million gross). To remedy that, he and Miramax Films, Trainspotting's American benefactor, are selling the movie as a limey Pulp Fiction — the product of a British scene abuzz with the rock & roll voltage of Oasis, Pulp, and Blur. Miramax's maestros of hype have flooded the market with Trainspotting postcards, posters, books, records, and a revamped Iggy Pop video directed by Boyle. ''The most important thing is that it's marketed as a young film, and that it's proud to be British, in a way,'' Macdonald says. ''It's actually kind of cool to be British at the moment.''

Macdonald should know. ''Pretty popular we are, at the moment,'' he admits. After a fierce bidding war for A Life Less Ordinary, Hodge's third script, the Trainspotting threesome is now set to come to America in September to make the film for Fox. At first glance, Life looks like a sharp turn from the bowels of Trainspotting — a reported $12 million Hollywood budget, Cameron Diaz possibly playing the love interest, a romantic comedy, for crying out loud. But Boyle isn't worried about going soft. ''Hopefully,'' he says, ''it'll have some of the ferocity of the other two films. Only this time, it'll be love that we're demolishing, rather than the human body.''

Originally posted Aug 02, 1996 Published in issue #338 Aug 02, 1996 Order article reprints
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