EASTERN PROMISES Sequel: Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel May Return

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Prayers have been answered across the film noir fan base as Eastern Promises‘ sequel has been confirmed. The 2007 David Cronenberg sleeper hit that delved into the Russian mob demi-monde of Britain is going to be pummeling your eyeballs in the near future. Keep fingers crossed tightly, but breathe easy that at least ink is on paper, trying to get cameras rolling.

If only all the news about it were so reassuring. It’s not.

Mind you, with a bit of luck, there won’t be too many problems in front of the camera. The mainstay of Eastern Promises, Viggo Mortensen, will be stenciling on the Cyrillic tattoos and practice his naked fighting for a starring role again. Chances are that Vincent Cassel, Eastern Promises‘ vengeful weasel of a mob prince, will also agree to reprising his part. He’s crazy, but not crazy enough to pass on another shot of offending American audiences.

Know who won’t be offending audiences with Eastern Promises 2? David Cronenberg.

Yeah, apparently Cronenberg is too busy risking the latest redemption of his career. He’s shooting his slate of increasingly edgy Robert Pattinson pieces, and so has passed off the sequel to one of his most critically and financially successful films to Steven Knight, according to Vulture, screenwriter to the original.

As far as passing the torch goes, you could do worse to hand it over to the writer. But Knight has never directed anything of note. Expecting him to fill the boots of a fierce stylist like Cronenberg is a tall order. What’s more, as smashing as Eastern Promises was, Knight’s resume’ makes him look like a journeyman. He started in crime with the TV series, The Detectives, but then branched all over the map of genres.

Simply put, he’s a freshman director with a passing concentration on crime. Considering this is one of the best crime films of its decade, I would have liked more gravity behind the camera for the Eastern Promises sequel.