After making a lot of money and earning a few Oscar nominations, last week we brought you word that Martin Scorsese’s The Departed was getting a sequel. We were wrong. It’s not getting a sequel, it is getting two sequels.
According to one of our secret squirrels (another annoyingly anonymous source again… sorry), screenwriter William Monahan isn’t just writing a second movie, he’s also working on an outline for a third Departed film. What either movie will be about is still anyone’s guess. We already know the second movie will not be a prequel but a continuation involving existing characters so it stands to reason that this probably applies to the third film as well. What our source was able to confirm is that the second script, the one Monahan is writing right now, is indeed about Mark Wahlberg’s Digman as so many have already assumed. It’s not much of a leap to figure that out of course, since the first film’s ending really limits the possible options.
The really big question though is whether or not Scorsese will direct any of these sequels. He’s never made a sequel before, and convincing him to start now won’t be easy. Marty hasn’t ruled it out, but just in case they can’t get him our source says Children of Men’s Alfonso Cuaron and Michael Mann are two of the names being considered as pinch hitters.
While I can’t tell you where our information comes from, I can tell you it’s a source that’s proven to be pretty reliable in the past. Still, it’s all rumor until we get something more official and besides, The Departed sequels are still in the very early stages of pre-production. That means just about anything could happen. Reporting on a movie this early into pre-production is kind of like reporting on quicksand. This is only what they’re planning right now, next month they could do a 360 and decide to do something entirely different. Take all of this for what it is.
