Reports of the death of a sequel to 2007 thriller Eastern Promises may have been exaggerated, even if we've barely heard a peep about it for almost a decade. According to the original film's writer, Steven Knight, it could even be shooting this year.
Visiting Collider to talk up his latest, Serenity, Knight dropped mention of the sequel to the film, which saw Naomi Watts drawn into the murky world of the Russian mafia in London, with Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel amongst those entrenched in the dangerous territory. David Cronenberg directed the movie, and said in 2012 that any idea of a sequel was effectively more of a corpse than anyone who tries to give Mortensen's character trouble, shut down by distributor Focus Features.
Mortensen appears unlikely to return as Nikolai, but according to Knight, the team (including a director he can't name yet) is now courting several actors. "It is like fishing, where you leave it out there. And it’s been out there for a while," says Knight. "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."
We can also expect a timely feeling to the new movie, especially given how much focus there has been on Russia recently. "The script changed a bit," Knight admits. "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." With luck, this thing could actually, finally happen, even if Mortensen leaves big shoes to fill.
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