twins

It’s been exactly twelve years since Twin Town first hit UK cinemas, so the news of a prospective sequel couldn’t be more well timed. According to Mandrake, the second outing for the terrible Lewis twins is finally revving up - but before we get onto the details of part two, you’ll very likely need a reminder on the first.

Twin Town starred Rhys Ifans and his brother Llyr as a pair of conniving brothers that take cruel vengeance upon Swansea’s local kingpin, and was directed by Kevin Allen, the brother of Keith, father of Joe and uncle of Lily. Danny Boyle is listed as one of the Executive Producers and, to be honest, the influence of Trainspotting doesn’t just show, it gets shown off.

Here’s the tagline to the original film:

Rugby. Tom Jones. Male Voice Choirs. Shirley Bassey. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantisiliogogogch. Snowdonia. Prince of Wales. Anthony Hopkins. Daffodils. Sheep. Sheep Lovers. Coal. Slate Quarries. The Blaenau Ffestiniog Dinkey-Doo Miniature Railway. Now If That’s Your Idea Of Thousands Of Years Of Welsh Culture, You Can’t Blame Us For Trying To Liven The Place Up A Little Can You?

Kevin Allen co-wrote with Paul Durden, who now reveals that, while contracts haven’t been signed, the follow up could be coming soon. The Lewis Bros., as played by the Ifans Bros., closed out the first film by heading off to Morocco and, apparently, the sequel concept has them returning as Muslim fundamentalists. It has the working title of Fatty Al Akbar, a pun on the Arabic takbir ‘Allahu Akbar’, meaning God is Great.

A good part of the appeal of Twin Town, I’m supposing, is that it dared to be sordid and squalid and glib all at once, and threw in all kinds of off-hand jokes about drugs, sex and misbehaving. I’m supposing that would be carried over to the sequel, therefore I’m expecting something at least a little like Uwe Boll’s Postal.

  • John Jones
    The first was horrible, a lame Trainspotting rip-off which came out too soon after Trainspotting so it was very easy for everyone to say "it's not as good as trainspotting" which it wasn't/isn't. A sequel will just make me want to go back and re visit trainspotting. Which is awesome.
  • HOWARDMARKS
    Enjoyed the first film. Love how it tonally shifted gears in the middle of the film.

    "Love" the Trainspotting comparisons, when that's the farthest thing from the truth.

    Explain to me how Twin Town was a Trainspotting rip-off. Was it because of an affiliation with Danny Boyle? If so, pathetic. There is nothing remotely similar between the two films. Nothing.
  • moranis
    The main difference between Twin Town and Trainspotting is that Trainspotting is good and Twin Town is quite the opposite.
  • There are any number of stylistic choices that echo Trainspotting.
  • HOWARDMARKS
    Brendon-

    List 'em please.

    BTW, I miss your site. Not sarcasm, but sincerity.
  • You know, I don't want to try to do it without copies to hand, but I will try to include them in any future post on the film. Scout's honour.

    Thanks for your kind words.
  • edog
    The look and feel of the marketing campaign was meant to echo Trainspotting -- in fact, it was very much marketed as "this Summer's Trainspotting." The producers wanted to evoke Trainspotting's popularity to get people into the theaters for Twin Town.

    The plot (and quality, IMHO) between the two movies are quite different. However, Trainspotting's foreign, dark, violent humor was a total oddity in 2006, and quite refreshing, so in that respect it has a lot in common with Twin Town.
  • edog
    Er, I meant 1996.
  • Hi Howard, great to see you down in Laugharne Cuba am Byth, hope all is well, Bong On and all power
  • freemachine
    "It has the working title of Fatty Al Akbar, a pun on the Arabic takbir ‘Allahu Akbar’, meaning God is Great."

    Ha-ha, the title alone is worth a half dozen fatwas!
  • czee
    Wasn't a Twin Town something that the Nazi Angel of Death Josef Mengels try to set up in Brazil after WWII? That's what I think of when I see these articles.
  • craigevans
    yeh lets have part 2 the first was amazing this will be even better.
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