The Departed was hands down the best film of 2006. The only other film that really comes close to challenging that is Pan’s Labyrinth. The film was a big success with critics, the public and the box office. Add on top of that the fact that it’s getting a lot of awards buzz and that the original Asian version called “Infernal Affairs” (my favorite all time cop film by the way) had 2 follow up films, it should come as no surprise that there is now talk that Martin Scorsese is looking at doing a couple more as well. I say, HELL YA! Infernal Affairs 2 was almost as good as the first one… so why not?
The good folks over at Moviehole give us this:
According to MTV, the Raging Bull is in talks with director Martin Scorsese – his director on such classics as “Raging Bull”, “Mean Streets” and “Taxi Driver” – to join the cast of an upcoming sequel to “The Departed”.
“Infernal Affairs”, the film that the Golden Globe Award Winning film was based on, spawned two sequels, so it’s not at all surprising to hear that Scorsese is considering following up his version. And after the mint the first film has made at the box office, Warner Bros won’t be flipping the thumbs upside down to the idea either. Any sequel would wanna be damn good though… they’ve a lot to live up to; and Scorsese’s definitely a man who puts dignity right up there with Guinness beer. Did you know that De Niro was actually offered the role that Martin Sheen ended up playing in the film? True. Bob couldn’t do it because of his commitments to “The Good Shepherd”.
This wouldn’t be just another attempt by a studio to cash in on a sequel. As I mentioned above, the original source material has the continued story already in place. If they could adapt it into the North American context as brilliantly as they did with the first one, then you’ve got gold on your hands. I’m personally really hoping this one turns out true.
