Eastern Promises Sequel in Early Stages of Development
Looks like Richard Linklater isn’t the only one mulling over a somewhat unexpected sequel. According to MTV Movies Blog, David Cronenberg is in the early stages of planning a sequel to his 2007 film Eastern Promises. Viggo Mortensen is on board to return, as are screenwriter Steven Knight and producer Paul Webster. Cronenberg fans will know that this is the first time he has shown interest in directing a sequel; although both The Fly and Scanners spawned sequels, he had no personal involvement. Here’s what Cronenberg had to say about Eastern Promises 2:
“It’s the first time I’ve ever been in a situation where I actually want to do a sequel to something… I’ve never had the desire to do that before. But in this case, I thought we had unfinished business with those characters. I didn’t feel that we had finished with Nikolai and we had done a lot of research that was more than we could stuff into that one movie.”
I couldn’t agree more. One of my only complaints about Eastern Promises was that it ended too soon and I wanted to spend more time exploring that world, so I’m psyched about the prospects. Cronenberg is planning to have some meetings with Knight and Webster to flesh out the ideas further. In the meantime, he is also supposed to be directing Robert Ludlum’s The Matarese Circle. Unfortunately it doesn’t sound like Viggo Mortensen will be involved in that one after all.
Comments (7)
I agree. I think there could be a lot more to add to the story. Especially seeing how far the Viggo character goes in the Russian underworld and his relationship with the Naomi Watts character, although it’s not necessary for her to return.
Posted by Maopheus on March 30th, 2009it writes itself (at least for a first year screenwriter) Viggo’s character justifies increasingly brutal and sick actions to gain prominence over the mafia group he is a player in. We see back story of his earlier days and why he is hell bent on bring down the Russian mob (most likely the rape of his mom, or Dad stabbed in the neck – basic Russian Christmas stuff)
To keep a grip on something pure and real; Viggo seeks out Naomi’s character and “their” child. Others (maybe Vincent’s drunk, gay mob son) follows Viggo and finds out about his other life. In the final act Viggo most choose between saving his cover and completing the epic task of bring down the entire Russian mob influence in the western world, or, the life of the only family he knows.
Miraculously, he achieves both by flying through the air using his spiderweb to catch his wife and baby from falling to their death while also capturing all the mobsters at the same time! AMAZING!
Posted by rus in chicago on March 30th, 2009I love the first one, and dont think a bad sequel would hurt it.
A good sequel could probably make the first one seem even better.
Posted by Goon on March 30th, 2009What, no Viggo? Cronenberg wouldn’t recast the character, so the only way that it would work would be if Nikolai wasn’t involved either, which doesn’t seem right with that quote. I’m pretty sure Nikolai would be the central character in the sequel …
Posted by Ashley on March 31st, 2009Viggo will be in it. The movie I was saying he wasn’t involved in was Cronenberg’s adaptation of The Matarese Circle.
Posted by Sean on March 31st, 2009Oooooh, okay, that’s fine then.
Posted by Ashley on March 31st, 2009Another Cronenberg-Mortensen team-up? Hell Yeah! I don’t care that they would do another Eastern Promises movie, even though I loved Eastern Promises. Just as long as they work together again, im in.
Posted by Pr1mal on March 31st, 2009Leave a Reply