It’s been a very long time since Eastern Promises hit theatres. The David Cronenberg-directed film arrived back in 2007 and brought us into the world of the Russian mob, as Viggo Mortensen played Nikolai, a gangster who gets mixed up with a midwife (Naomi Watts) looking into the case of a prostitute who died during childbirth. It wasn’t the director’s best effort, but it was a well made movie with a few terrific scenes.
Shortly after its release, talk of a sequel popped up but never really went anywhere. Cronenberg himself even said that the project was dead, on multiple occasions, but now we’re hearing that might not be the case. According to Digital Spy, Eastern Promises 2 is still alive and well and looks set to head into production this March in London. The outlet knows this thanks to a listing on My Entertainment World, which also revealed the following synopsis:
The sequel picks 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.
Unfortunately, the listing doesn’t say if Cronenberg or any of the main cast members will return. A sequel would be a tough sell without them, but it could still work. We know that original writer Steven Knight penned the script, and he’s claimed in the past that it’s better than the first one. Whether it’s good enough to lure the original players back or not remains to be seen, but for now, you can color us intrigued.
As we said before, Eastern Promises wasn’t Cronenberg’s finest work, but it was certainly a gritty and compelling crime flick, with a fearless lead performance from Mortensen and solid work from the supporting cast. If they can get the gang back together for a sequel, we’d be all for it.
It’s still early days on Eastern Promises 2, but with production set to get underway in the not too distant future, we’ll surely have something further to report on soon, so be sure to stay tuned for more!
