There has been rumblings of a sequel to The Departed recently with most of the quotes being attributed to Mark Wahlberg who was nominated for his role as Detective Dignam in the film. Well, Frosty over at Collider had a chance to talk with Departed screenwriter William Monahan about the status of said sequel and the chances it will see the light of day.
Recently I posted an article about what I thought a Departed sequel would cover based on the special features on the 2-disc DVD and HD DVD and couldn’t really see the second film really being all that close to Infernal Affairs 2
based on the amount of “Boston crime” Monahan put into the story and it seems I wasn’t too far off.
Here is a snippet of what he had to say:
I read the prequel and sequel to Infernal Affairs for the first time a couple of weeks ago and there wasn’t anything I could use in Boston situation, not now. The thing is, that world of The Departed is sort of an intensely personal literary construct. If you analyze what the commodity is now, it’s that literary construct. People are talking about a sequel, but the reality is that I could propose Untitled Boston Crime Picture and sell it for more than I’d get for a sequel. I’m not putting the screws to anybody, I’m stating a fact. The commodity has transformed. I’ll be writing about Boston as long as I live, but whether or not I do it in the form of a Departed sequel is up to other people. I’d honestly love to bring back Dignam, and I know how the picture would open. With “The Departed Tango” and snow falling on the Boston Common. I know every scene in the picture. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won’t. When I say that I couldn’t use Infernal Affairs 2 and 3 I’m not criticizing either film, I’m saying that The Departed now points in its own direction.
This is so true and I really hope you check out the article I wrote here because the story is pretty cool concerning the character Monahan modeled Jack Nicholson’s character from and I would love to see it on the big screen with Jack.
As for the rest of the Collider interview it is certainly worth the read as Monahan talks a little more about The Departed, being nominated for the Oscar, he gives props to Scorsese and Mann and then talks about his upcoming projects, here’s a taste of that:
A really big contemporary film with Ridley, based on a spy novel by David Ignatius, who covers the Middle East for the Washington Post. It’s going to shoot next fall. There’s a lot of action and a terrific plot, and great characters.
That news was actually reported only about three weeks ago and it is Ignatius’s novel “Penetration” and it is set in the house-of-mirrors world of international spying, the story centers on an American intelligence officer who goes beyond conventional intelligence gathering to capture a top Middle Eastern operative. According to the original story out of The Hollywood Reporter it will be Russell Crowe in the lead role.
For the rest of the Collider interview click here.
