Viggo Mortensen may be involved in one of his biggest awards contenders yet, with the recent “Green Book,” but many will probably rank his 2007 film, “Eastern Promises” as a better choice for film fans. The David Cronenberg-directed mafia film earned Mortensen an Academy Award nomination, as the film would go on to receive critical acclaim across the board. And according to the film’s writer, it would appear that the world of “Eastern Promises” is coming back sooner than you might think.
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In a new interview with Collider, Steven Knight, who is promoting his upcoming film “Serenity,” discussed the idea of an “Eastern Promises” sequel. And surprisingly, it’s not even a strong possibility, but the sequel will probably begin production sometime in 2019.
“It is like fishing, where you leave it out there,” says Knight. “And it’s been out there for a while. It went through permutations in the sense of, how do you follow Viggo? We’ve been through that and we’ve moved on and now we’re in a position where I will say ‘watch this space,’ we’re close to getting into production.”
However, there are probably going to be a couple major changes to the sequel that will set it apart from “Eastern Promises.” Although there’s a director that is attached, Knight doesn’t go into details, but it would appear that the Cronenberg won’t return. In addition, the sequel will not include Mortensen, but the production is currently looking for a major actor to take the lead.
And while the writer wouldn’t give any specifics about the plot, he did mention that the sequel will take modern politics into consideration.
“[The script] changed a bit,” the writer said. “It changed quite recently as a result of events in the world. The topicality of the Russia thing. I’ve adapted it to reflect recent events.”
No word on a release date for the “Eastern Promises” sequel, although a 2019 start date would allude to a 2020 release. As Knight says, stay tuned.