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After rumored for several months, "Trainspotting 2" is now officially underway with director Danny Boyle taking the helm, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The original cast members such as Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner and Robert Carlyle are also back to reprise their respective roles.

TriStar Pictures announced on December 4 that the studio had acquired worldwide rights to the sequel to 1996's hit "Trainspotting". John Hodge, who wrote the screenplay for the first movie, is also back as writer. Boyle will produce alongside Andrew Macdonald, Christian Colson and Bernie Bellew. Filming is expected to commence in late spring 2016 with plans to release the film in 2017.

The original film was based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh. It centered on a group of lower income heroin users in Edinburgh drifting through their lives. McGregor played a heroine addict named Mark Renton, who befriended Miller's Sick Boy, a drug dealer, Carlyle's Begbie, a violent sociopath, and Bremner's Spud, a dim but genial friend. Meanwhile, Kelly Macdonald portrayed Renton's underage girlfriend Diane.

"It's been 20 years since we met these characters and John Hodge's screenplay brilliantly explores what's happened to them - and to us - in the intervening years," Boyle said in a recent interview. "We are grateful to Tom and Hannah for their support and we can't wait to get going."

"Like almost everyone my age, I had the 'Choose Life' poster on my university dorm room wall," TriStar president Hannah Minghella recalled the phenomenon caused by the film. She also said that she had a willingness to work with Boyle again since a long time ago. "I have wanted to work with Danny ever since, so the opportunity to collaborate on the sequel is truly a dream come true," she explained. "It perfectly represents the filmmaker-driven movies I am committed to making at TriStar."