Danny Boyle is hoping to film 28 Years Later III "next year".

The 67-year-old filmmaker would have preferred to shoot the movie consecutively with the previous two installments in the horror franchise but he "literally ran out of time" with the location so he hopes there isn't too much of a delay.

He told JoBlo: "We ran out of time.

"Because it's set in an area of Britain [where] you can only film at certain times of the year. We ran out of time this year - we literally ran out of time…

"So it'll be, hopefully, fingers crossed, next year. But there's the enthusiasm there, and Alex (Garland) has done a wonderful script for it."

When sony won the rights to the 28 Years Later trilogy, it waited before it greenlit the third film, instead opting to shoot the first two movies back-to-back, with Danny directing last year's 28 Years Later and Nia DaCosta taking the reins for this year's follow-up 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.

DaCosta recently expressed frustration that 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple - which starred Ralph Fiennes, Jack O'Connell, and Alfie Williams - underperformed at the box office despite being a hit with critics.

She told Empire magazine: "It's so funny, because literally every barometer we use in this industry to determine whether or not a movie is good, and people like it and want to see it, was through the roof, and yet our box office wasn't there.

"I made a great film, and I'm really proud of it, and people liked it. My friend said to me years ago, 'Nia, your career is for you to enjoy', and I really have been trying to put that into practice and take that to heart over the course of the past few years.

"Our careers are for us to enjoy, and obviously they're stressful and hard, and anything that involves an audience is really bruising. You have to court and interact with people's opinions of you and your work.

"And it's usually not actually you - it's an avatar of you created by a bunch of impressions.

"I've been working through that, and so when this came out and it didn't do as well in terms of the money it made, I was disappointed. But I also was like, 'I'm so happy that when people find the film, they're going to enjoy the film.' I wish it made more money, but I'm really proud of it."

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple was released just 28 weeks after the long-awaited 28 Years Later and DaCosta thinks the marketing stunt might have been a misjudgement as it confused audiences.

She said: "Yeah, but also I think maybe too soon, because people were like, 'Oh yeah, I saw that last summer!' I'm like, 'No, no, so there's a sequel!' But yes, it was very clever."