IT WAS a morality tale of the yuppie generation, a bleak portrait of Edinburgh flatmates who are driven to savage violence by greed.

Now Danny Boyle, the Scots film director, has approved plans for his hit film Shallow Grave to be remade in Shanghai. The movie, which originally starred Ewan McGregor, Kerry Fox and Christopher Eccleston, is to be given a Far Eastern makeover by Agan, the Chinese director of cult horror films including The Game of Killing.

The low-budget film catapulted Boyle, its producer Andrew Macdonald and screenwriter John Hodge, into the movie A-list. They followed its success with Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary and The Beach.

Boyle said the premise of the film was ideally suited to the backdrop of Shanghai. The city, a financial powerhouse which is driving the country’s economy, is at the heart of what some are calling the second industrial revolution.

Millions of Chinese are expected to migrate from the countryside to cities such as Shanghai over the coming years. The influx of capital has been blamed for high-level corruption in the bustling city.

“If you are going to remake Shallow Grave you would make it in Shanghai,” he said. “What a brilliant place to do it — it’s bursting with capitalist frenzy.

“We made Shallow Grave at a time in Britain when everyone was sick of the corruption of the Tories. Shallow Grave was really a very cynical look at what that obsession with money did to people.

“Now there is an explosion in Shanghai and it seems really worthwhile to remake the film. This is a case where the idea for the remake is an even better one than the original.”

While Boyle, whose latest film Millions opens this Friday, will not be creatively involved in the remake, he said that he was happy to hand over the rights to the movie which launched his career.

“That was our big breakthrough,” he said. “That film brought us fantastic opportunities so you can’t start being precious when another young filmmaker sees the potential there. It would be great to show both versions as a double bill.”

Mark Cousins, the film critic and producer of 4Way Pictures, said the remake promised to be interesting. “Shanghai is definitely at the centre of film making at the moment, as are many other cities in the Far East,” he added.

“Even if it’s not very good we can look with amusement at it from Scotland. I do think it will be fascinating to see how it’s adapted for an Asian context. Boyle’s films are about the division between the country and the city, about yuppies and the newly moneyed. Perhaps the Chinese could even improve on the original.”

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