In His Dreams

Overlooked in last Sunday's Variety story by Nick Holdsworth about Robert De Niro's comments in front of a Karlovy Vary Film Festival audience is a comment he made about wanting to make two more Good Shepherd films. For the tube maybe. Certainly for theatrical. The want-to-see would be close to nil. De Niro is just "talking," of course, but it gives you an idea of how off-on-their-own-cloud some hyphenates and former movie stars can be.

De Niro said he "would like to make one [sequel] bringing the action forward from 1961 to 1989, the other following its hero, Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), up to the present day," Holdsworth wrote.

Part One, in other words, would end with the collapse of Communism in the Soviet satellite countries in eastern Europe. It would of course diverge from history in that James Jesus Angleton, the legendary CIA figure whom the Wilson character is largely based upon, died in 1987.

Part Two would presumably concern itself with Saddam Hussein, the '91 Gulf war, Islamic fundamentalism, the '93 World Trade Center bombing, 9/11, bogus WMDs, the March '03 invasion of Iraq and so on.

De Niro said that "although he is not working on research for the concluding parts of the hoped-for trilogy, he said [that] being in central Europe offered a good opportunity to begin thinking about the material. “I had not been planning to do research on that while here, but it is a good idea,” De Niro said.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 10, 2008 at 11:53 AM

comment #1

mutinyco Author Profile Page says ...

I'd see them in a second. The Good Shepherd was the best studio drama of '06.

Posted by mutinyco Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 12:22 PM

comment #2

Alan Cerny Author Profile Page says ...

People want to drop GODFATHER comparisons on THE DARK KNIGHT, but the most direct successor to that film in recent years was THE GOOD SHEPHERD. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed and admired that film.

Posted by Alan Cerny Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 12:25 PM

comment #3

alynch Author Profile Page says ...

Yeah, that film is underrated as all hell, so I'd love to see follow ups. It'll probably never happen though.

Posted by alynch Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 12:27 PM

comment #4

Mgmax, le Corbeau Author Profile Page says ...

I loved the first 30 minutes of The Good Shepherd. Great setup with WASPy atmosphere. Then I stopped believing it when SPOILERS! they murdered Michael Gambon (if anything, the Brits were way too easy on their compromised spies, see Anthony Blunt), I stopped caring when Matt Damon did nothing for two hours straight, I stopped paying attention as it did a poor run-through of every CIA story you ever heard (the Nosenko case! The LSD case! The Angleton case!), and made it impossible to know if Damon was a total badass or a clueless clown (did he have the daughter in law killed? I guess, but it's so underdramatized by that point you can't tell). I have rarely seen a promising movie run so completely off the rails. DeNiro may be obsessed with all this CIA history stuff but there's no sign that anybody ever figured out how to make good, character-driven drama out of it.

Posted by Mgmax, le Corbeau Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 12:30 PM

comment #5

Geoff Author Profile Page says ...

I really enjoyed THE GOOD SHEPHERD but admit it's not perfect.

It would be great if Damon's character still looks exactly the same when it gets to the 90's and he still doesn't age.

Posted by Geoff Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 12:38 PM

comment #6

CinemaPhreek Author Profile Page says ...

Yes, its pretty much on par with GODFATHER.

Only, it's not as well written and it's horribly miscast.

One of 2006's more OVERRATED movies.

Posted by CinemaPhreek Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 12:52 PM

comment #7

Richardson Author Profile Page says ...

"People want to drop GODFATHER comparisons on THE DARK KNIGHT, but the most direct successor to that film in recent years was THE GOOD SHEPHERD."

I don't mean to say that it's a bad movie, but I thought 'The Good Shepherd' stuck too close to 'The Godfather'. I mean, the last scenes are practically identical in terms of the emotional beats, even if the characters themselves are different.

Posted by Richardson Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 12:52 PM

comment #8

hcat Author Profile Page says ...

Guess I am in the minority for disliking good shepard. There was a decent ten minutes with Joe Pesci where he asks what was the foundation of the WASP culture and Damon replys 'the United States of America, everyone else is just visiting." If that sentiment was explored it would have been a powerful movie. Instead they gave us another man who gains the world and loses his soul tale. Yet they never give us a reason to believe Damon had a soul to begin with. Ooohhh, he loses the love of his family. He hated his family the entire movie.

Posted by hcat Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 12:55 PM

comment #9

berg Author Profile Page says ...

the sequel opens with a twenty minute tracking shot going down a secret corridor

Posted by berg Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 1:05 PM

comment #10

btwnproductions Author Profile Page says ...

I'd rather see a ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE triptych.

Posted by btwnproductions Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 1:26 PM

comment #11

jjgittes Author Profile Page says ...

The Good Shepherd was an ok film but its best moments came early on. It comes nowhere close to meeting its ambitions.

In terms of the "average" film-goer I think the movie is perceived as a bust, so yeah DeNiro's kind of deluding himself.

Posted by jjgittes Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 1:54 PM

comment #12

lipranzer Author Profile Page says ...

I'm one of those who thought THE GOOD SHEPHERD was terrific (it was #2 on my top 10 list that year, behind only CHILDREN OF MEN), so yeah, it is too bad the movie did middling enough business that a sequel won't likely happen.

For those who didn't like it, you should feel good you didn't suffer through "The Company," the TNT miniseries (adapted from Robert Littell's entertaining novel) which also was a fictional history of the CIA, but spanned a longer time period (it ends with the attempted coup against Gorbachev). Except DeNiro's movie had a story; the miniseries just felt like a travelogue. And while Geoff joked about the way Damon's character didn't seem to age, he at least carried himself as if he was younger first, then older. In the miniseries, Chris O'Donnell acted no different as a young man than he did as an old man, except he had a gray wig. The only two actors who came off well were Michael Keaton and Alfred Molina.

Posted by lipranzer Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 3:05 PM

comment #13

George Prager Author Profile Page says ...

Damon made the paralyzed guy in the DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY look like Larry Storch.

Posted by George Prager Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 3:31 PM

comment #14

JD Author Profile Page says ...

The Good Shepherd was better than Children of Men. A lot better.

Posted by JD Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 3:41 PM

comment #15

TedM Author Profile Page says ...

I, too, really liked THE GOOD SHEPHERD, despite the annoying presence of Eddie Redmayne. The film was a terrific take on WASP history.

About the age thing, go back and look at some of the photos of college grads in the late 1940s and early 50s. Many look quite mature. It was an era where one kept the same haircut, dressed up, etc. The men could be anywhere from 18 to 45 and they pretty much look the same.

As for Damon's character hating his family - well why not? SPOILER -- remember he was trapped into the marriage by Jolie's character when she got pregnant. He certainly didn't love her. He tried to do the "right thing" and ended up paying for it.

Also, I prefer the DVD -- the deleted scenes help to flesh out some of the backstory.

Posted by TedM Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 3:52 PM

comment #16

Jezza Author Profile Page says ...

Jeff, to call De Niro a "former movie star" makes him sound like Burt Renolds doing Uwe Boll films.

De Niro is still steadily making high-profile films and many people enjoyed The Good Shepherd even if you did not and it was not a critical success.

The film was an adult and complex character study and I thought it was one of the best films of the year.

I'm sure De Niro would be aware of what is required to get the go ahead for a sequel or continiung of the story, and that he will do a commendable job.

http://dreams-of-a-nobody.blogspot.com/

Posted by Jezza Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 5:19 PM

comment #17

pamelina Author Profile Page says ...

I would love to see this movie. I loved The Good Shepherd. I hope they do make 2 more, it is a very interesting subject to me. I may be in the minority but I would certainly pay my admission and buy the dvd, as I have with The Good Shepherd. It was one of the very few movies I have gone to a theater to see alone, count The Shining and The Constant Gardener among that select few.

Posted by pamelina Author Profile Page at July 10, 2008 7:58 PM

comment #18

Sean E Author Profile Page says ...

"Guess I am in the minority for disliking good shepard. "

On this site, maybe. As far as the general populace goes, I think you'd get lots of backup.

Posted by Sean E Author Profile Page at July 11, 2008 10:15 AM

comment #19

Arizona Joe Author Profile Page says ...

I disliked "The Good Shepard." It had was half-baked and too long. I thought Damon was miscast, De Niro was not credible as the superior. (And Bobby D is my favorite living actor.) He looked out of place with his eyeglass frames.

Interesting comments about WASP culture on this blog. During the time of the film, WASP culture did reign in government. With the Bushes, you could say it retains a very strong presence.

Among younger people, you don't hear the term WASP so much anymore. I wish someone would do a book or a novel about the history of WASP's in America, not so much on the national scene, but in everyday home life.

Besides being white and Protestant, I have found WASPs to be profoundly anti-intellectual. That's a stereotype, and I guess not nice. That has been my anecdotal experience.

Posted by Arizona Joe Author Profile Page at July 11, 2008 12:03 PM

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