‘Eastern Promises 2′ may not happen, says David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg is a director who had two phases of his career with directing two distinct type of films – the freaky body horror films back in the 80′s that received critical acclaim (The Fly, Scanners, Videodrome, Existenz) and the brooding crime dramas that have become masterpieces on their own (History of Violence, Eastern Promises). But ‘Eastern Promises’, an excellent crime drama starring Viggo Mortensen isn’t the kind of film you’d expect a sequel out of yet Cronenberg revealed plans to make it. Now, it looks like that may not be happening anymore.

The Playlist spoke to the director in New York who revealed that though the sequel was supposed to start shooting in the fall, there’s a lack of interest by the studio Focus Features which may lead to its death:

We were supposed to start shooting ‘Eastern Promises 2′ in October. [But] It’s done… If you don’t like it talk to James Schamus at Focus. It was his decision.

Though it’s not the end of the world, it’s still a shame because the plot sounded quite interesting. Spoilers for the first film ahead – the film would have followed “”the incompetent underboss Kirill (Cassel) thinking that he and his henchman driver Nikolai (Mortensen) 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.”

But we can always hope it ends up happening later on.