David Cronenberg is going back to the well again. The well of “Eastern Promises,” that is, the successful 2006 film starring Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassel about an undercover cop and the Russian mob in the U.K.
“We are moving forward with it,” Cronenberg told MTV. “We all are excited about the idea of doing a sequel.”
The “we” thankfully includes Mortensen who was nominated for an Academy Award for his brooding, yet compassionate performance in the film.
But wait, ‘Promises’ felt like a pretty self-contained story, no? The creepy Canadian director admits they’re still trying to figure out a way to revisit the characters — not that it would be hard; Mortensen’s undercover cop is still alive in the conclusion — but he isn’t sure if any characters would return outside this lead character.
“We are going to have a meeting very soon between me, Steve Knight and Paul Webster to discuss what the script would be,” the filmmaker said. “I have some very strong ideas about what I would like to see, but I would like to hear what they have to say as well. And then after that, if all goes well, Steve goes away and writes a great script. If we all like it, we make it.”
If it does happen, the film would be Cronenberg’s first sequel and the impetus almost seems to work with Viggo Mortensen again. “Viggo is a very special guy. I consider him a personal friend and we communicate all the time. That doesn’t always happen with actors. He’s very serious about his acting. But he’s really a funny guy. We laugh a lot. We giggle a lot.”
Giggle a lot? Cronenberg: evidently not as serious and creepy as you presumed.