"Departed" sequel

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What if William Monahan's The Departed sequel was about Irish gangster zombies? A kind of ghost story? Mark Wahlberg's character rejoins the undercover/covert branch of the Staties, and as he begins to investigate a series of bizarre killings...naah, that sucks. In fact, Wahlberg's guy being the lead isn't much of an idea in itself. There's really no reason to remake this other than to make money, which is a terrible reason from the get-go.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on February 1, 2007 at 2:21 PM

comment #1

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

I think they need to remake it with Jude Law!

Posted by Mgmax, le Corbeau at February 1, 2007 2:55 PM

comment #2

JD says ...

Did anyone notice how callously spoiler heavy the Variety piece about this was? Is it acceptable to reveal major plot details 4 months after a movie comes out, even if it's not on DVD yet? Personally, I don't think so. This is one case where the spoilers really would ruin the movie... because they're so damn surprising.

Posted by JD at February 1, 2007 2:58 PM

comment #3

Geoff says ...

It kind of reminds me of French Connection 2. There's a big time Oscar winning film that spawned a sequal. To be fair, it's not a carbon copy of the first one, but it's still not as good and unnecessary.

Posted by Geoff at February 1, 2007 3:08 PM

comment #4

ROTC says ...

JD, don't you think it's reasonable to expect an article about a sequel to discuss the launching points of the script? If you don't want spoilers about a movie, don't read any articles about its pending sequel.

Posted by ROTC at February 1, 2007 3:10 PM

comment #5

JTag says ...

I am so lucky. I saw the movie on Tuesday night, and hadn't seen the articles yet. Just the lead abstract on Google News was enough to ruin it if I had logged on before I left for the theatre, but I went in totally unspoiled, and thank God for that.

Posted by JTag at February 1, 2007 3:14 PM

comment #6

ROTC says ...

** DEPARTED SPOILER ALERT **

Geoff, it's not an issue of genre. It's that almost every main character is dead at the end of The Departed and the plot/mission was pretty completely resolved - neither of which was true of the ending of the first French Connection.

Posted by ROTC at February 1, 2007 3:18 PM

comment #7

JD says ...

I don't personally care about the spoilers (I saw The Departed the day it came out), but there was one setence in that article that was totally excessive. There are subtle, elegant ways of writing articles like this without giving away specifics. There was something lazy and crude about the way this article was written. Nobody who's seen the movie needs such a blatant reminder of the plot and nobody who hasn't seen the movie wants it spoiled.

Posted by JD at February 1, 2007 3:19 PM

comment #8

caslab says ...

One of the things that really struck be about THE DEPARTED was how much it resembled a James Ellroy novel . . . so it would be interesting to see another story take place within the same universe as the first one, much like Ellroy's L.A. books.

And not just with Wahlberg. I want Baldwin back as well.

Posted by caslab at February 1, 2007 3:36 PM

comment #9

Mark says ...

What a boring flick. Since Wahlberg is off the force, a cold-blooded killer, and we assume (thx to Baldwin) that he'll be slinging drinks somewhere, how good interesting could a movie about an inner-city bartender be? Unless he then decides to go try out to be a special teams player on the New England Patriots....now then you may have got something.

Posted by Mark at February 1, 2007 3:50 PM

comment #10

Mark says ...

btw - "There's really no reason to remake this other than to make money, which is a terrible reason from the get-go."

Does anybody really think that Infernal Affairs was not remade into The Departed to make a shit-ton of money? How'd that turn out?

As the fall of communism proved, the pitfalls of money being the source of motivation gets a bum rap. Sure, many flicks aimed at returns are homogenized shit, but there's plenty of personal-projects that are just as shitty.

Posted by Mark at February 1, 2007 4:04 PM

comment #11

jeffmcm says ...

Mark, can you think of the non-profit-motive reason for The Departed 2: Dearly Departed to be made?

Posted by jeffmcm at February 1, 2007 4:07 PM

comment #12

Mark says ...

Jeffcm-
Of course not, besides Wahlberg obviously loving the character. But as i said , there was no non-profit motive to make The Departed in the first place. Yet it was pretty great. I'm saying that profit-based motives don't always turn out bad.

Posted by Mark at February 1, 2007 4:12 PM

comment #13

Josh Massey says ...

I'm with Mark. Remember, 99% of movies have a primary motive: make money. As has been said a billion times before, it ain't "show friends."

I think a Scorsese-helmed Departed II will be a very interesting flick - let's see how he does with his first sequel (to his own flick, that is.)

Posted by Josh Massey at February 1, 2007 4:16 PM

comment #14

jeffmcm says ...

Mark, the reason to make The Departed was very simple: give a great script with a great premise to a great director and let him hire great actors. Pretty much the _best_ reason to make a movie.

Posted by jeffmcm at February 1, 2007 4:23 PM

comment #15

DarthCorleone says ...

I've always been of the philosophy that if you want to improve a movie, throw some zombies in there. And a Scorsese zombie movie at that? That sounds great.

Here's my question: Infernal Affairs had two sequels, did it not? What ground did those sequels cover, because I've seen the first Infernal Affairs, and as far as who is left alive, there's really only one major difference from The Departed. I thought I had read that they were actually prequels. Or would they be diverting completely from the Infernal Affairs parallels?

Posted by DarthCorleone at February 1, 2007 4:29 PM

comment #16

NYCritic says ...

POSSIBLE SPOILERS IN MESSAGE!!

The HK Infernal Affairs movies (2 and 3) were indeed both prequels. 2 had a different actor playing the Tony Leung role and went back to cover the period of his beginnings as an undercover cop. Part 3 reunited Leung and Andy Lau and transpires just before the events in the first film.

There are actually aspects of all three films in Monahan's script which is why a sequel is rather pointless.

Posted by NYCritic at February 1, 2007 5:28 PM

comment #17

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

"Here's my question: Infernal Affairs had two sequels, did it not? What ground did those sequels cover, because I've seen the first Infernal Affairs, and as far as who is left alive, there's really only one major difference from The Departed."

The IA sequels are prequels, but also recognize that Hong Kong is much less ashamed of improbably convenient sequel plotting than Hollywood is-- for instance, Better Tomorrow II brings Chow Yun-Fat back as his own (heretofore completely unmentioned) twin brother, which as someone pointed out, would be like Marlon Brando returning in Godfather II as Geno Corleone.

Posted by Mgmax, le Corbeau at February 1, 2007 6:17 PM

comment #18

Arnzilla says ...

Actually, we've already had an actor come back as a twin brother to his Oscar-winning role: Jack Palance.

Posted by Arnzilla at February 1, 2007 7:33 PM

comment #19

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

Good point, though I suppose it's a little easier to take in a comedy. It's not like Ben Kingsley coming back as Rohandas Gandhi in Gandhi 2.

Posted by Mgmax, le Corbeau at February 1, 2007 8:46 PM

comment #20

MovieBob says ...

As an official straight-up sequel..? I dunno. But I'd enthusiastically support a "Departed" followup focusing on Dignan so long as Whalberg and Monahan are both back. The character is a great original creation (there is no equivalent to him in "Infernal Affairs") and Whalberg was a natural at firing off Monahan's impatient tough-guy dialogue.

Posted by MovieBob at February 1, 2007 9:23 PM

comment #21

Krazy Eyes says ...

I think a sequel could work as long as it doesn't try to be a direct sequel to the first film but an entirely new story that takes place in the same world. Bring back Wahlburg and Baldwin but don't feel compelled to make them the main characters.

My biggest worry is that it will just rehash the plot of the 1st one. They'll bring in a new undercover cop who must battle wits with *surprise* another mob mole within the police.

Posted by Krazy Eyes at February 2, 2007 7:52 AM

comment #22

Chris Willman says ...

Whoever said "Infernal Affairs 2 & 3" are both prequels is not entirely correct. "2" is a prequel, and "3" is half-prequel, half-sequel. A very significant part of "3" does deal with what happens to one of the main characters from the first movie after the events of that film. SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT That's only possible since the first "Infernal" leaves alive a major character that "Departed" kills off.

All three movies are about to come out in a boxed set, which I just finished reviewing for EW. They're fun to watch, as a sort of miniseries expansion, and each of the films is very different in tone and structure from the others. But they're increasingly convoluted to lesser effect, and neither of the last two films is anything that an American sequel would want to take off from.

And that's unlikely anyway--if it's true they plan to focus on the Wahlberg character, well, that's one of the few roles in "Departed" that doesn't have any parallel in the first "Infernal."

Posted by Chris Willman at February 2, 2007 9:39 AM

comment #23