The long-gestating sequel to David Cronenberg’s 2007 Russian mob movie Eastern Promises has been abandoned, says Vincent Kassel.
One project that David Cronenberg has repeatedly returned to over the years is his violent Russian mob drama, Eastern Promises. The 2007 film explored the life of Russian gangsters operating in London and refused to shy away from sensitive topics such as sex trafficking and the harsh realities of gangland violence.
However, despite Eastern Promises being held in high esteem, Focus Features elected not to go with Cronenberg’s take on a sequel and there have been efforts underway ever since to get a follow-up into production in some form or another.
At one point, Eastern Promises' screenwriter Steven Knight returned to help get things off the ground, creating a spin-off featuring Jason Statham called Small Dark Look that according to Knight, got very close to entering production. It appears that the window for getting a sequel made may now have closed though, with one of the film’s stars claiming that an Eastern Promises follow-up from David Cronenberg is now officially terminated.
Vincent Kassel told The Independent that “[Cronenberg] had a wonderful script” for the Eastern Promises sequel”.
He added that “we were ready to do it and I don’t know why it collapsed … now I don’t think it will happen anymore.”
Kassel would likely have the freshest information here too, given that he is collaborating with Cronenberg again this year on The Shrouds, in which the La Haine actor Cassel will play “Karsh, an innovative businessman, and grieving widower, who builds a device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud.”
The Shrouds certainly sounds very much like a Cronenberg project and it will be great to see the two talented creatives reunite, even if it isn’t in an Eastern Promises sequel. We’ll bring you more on The Shrouds as we hear it.
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