Ran across this tidbit over at Moviehole, that talks about Scorsese possibly returning to the Boston hood to turn his hit crime flick “The Departed” into a trilogy. Now on the face of it that would seem hard to do, with the two leads from the original being dead and all, but as the Hong Kong original (from which “The Departed” was remade from) attest, you don’t need living characters to make two pointless sequels. One way to do it would be for Scorsese to retrace the paths that led Leonardo Dicaprio and Matt Damon’s characters to their fates in “The Departed”. A prequel, if you will. Another would be to take Mark Wahlberg’s character and spin it off. God knows Wahlberg was insanely good in the flick. Then again, this could never happen, regardless of how much the studio wants it to happen.
Personally, I’m hoping it doesn’t happen. The Hong Kong original managed to do two sequels, but the first one, a prequel, barely had anything to do with the original, and the second sequel, a continuation of the original, was made possible because one of the male leads from the original was still alive. That isn’t the case with the American remake.
One good news if “The Departed” sequels do happen is this: Robert De Niro has expressed interest in doing them. According to De Niro, he was up for the role that went to Martin Sheen, but his commitments to “The Good Shepherd” (which he directed and starred in) made that impossible.
So there is a silver lining to all this sequel news, but I really do hope they don’t make sequels to “The Departed”. It was just so damn good by itself…
“Okay, okay, I won’t do a sequel, don’t hit me! Sheesh.”
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