David Cronenberg’s ‘Eastern Promises’ Sequel Is Dead, Says Vincent Cassel

Samantha Bergeson
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

“Eastern Promises” is not getting its promised sequel, according to actor Vincent Cassel.

The star said that a planned follow-up to David Cronenberg’s 2007 film has been canceled despite a script in the works.

More from IndieWire

“[Cronenberg] had a wonderful script,” Cassel told The Independent. “We were ready to do it and I don’t know why it collapsed. Now I don’t think it will happen anymore.”

A sequel was first in the works as of 2012, but a budget could not be agreed upon between Focus Features and Cronenberg, as the director told IndieWire. Since then, a follow-up to “Eastern Promises” has been discussed in multiple iterations — both with and without Cronenberg, including most recently Steven Knight returning to pen the breakout film “Small Dark Look” with Jason Statham. But there’s been no movement on that 2020 project, either.

“I really wanted to see Nikolia go back to Russia, because one of the things I wanted in the first movie was that you see a bunch of Russians in London but you never see them in Russia,” the “Crimes of the Future” helmer said. “In other words, you experience their exile and they are trying to recreate some of Russia within London.”

The original sequel was meant to pick up where the 2007 film left off — with the incompetent underboss Kirill thinking that he and his henchman driver Nikolai really have inherited the throne from his crime-lord father, without knowing that Nikolai is actually a clandestine agent working undercover in Russia’s federal security service.

Cassel additionally worked with Cronenberg for “A Dangerous Method” and is set to star in the writer-director’s upcoming sci-fi film “The Shrouds.” Production for “The Shrouds” is set to begin in mid-2023 in Toronto. The film is also set to feature Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future” star Léa Seydoux.

“It’s the story of a man who loses his wife. It’s about the incapacity to cope with the loss of a loved one,” Cassel recently told The Guardian. “I never thought he had such confidence in me and I’m really flattered. I told him, ‘David, honestly, I have no idea how I’m going to play this.’ And he said that’s exactly why he chose me.”

In “The Shrouds,” Cassel plays Karsh, an innovative businessman and grieving widower, who builds a device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud.

Writer-director Cronenberg told IndieWire’s Eric Kohn while at 2022 Cannes that “The Shrouds” will take place in a world where people can watch their deceased relatives decaying in real-time. The concept was originally set as a Netflix series, with Cronenberg writing two episodes before the streamer canceled plans.

“I think they’re very conservative and for whatever reason, they didn’t go ahead with my project,” Cronenberg said. “I still thanked them because I wrote a script and I wouldn’t have done that if it hadn’t been for their enthusiasm.”

He added, “I was interested in a streaming series as an alternative form of cinema because suddenly you’re making eight or 10 hours of film.”

Best of IndieWire

Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.