Viggo says: Look for Eastern Promises 2

“Eastern Promises” was named by Daily Helping, as one of the ten best movies of the past decade. (It was in fact tied with another Viggo Mortensen-David Cronenberg collaboration, “A History of Violence”).

Rumors of a sequel have have been floating about online for well over a year now, and now good news comes from one of the other returning actors, Vincent Cassel, (Shrek, Mesrine) who sounds just as excited as we are to hear of a return to the murky world of  London’s Russian mafia.

Cassel ,(husband to the amazing, Monica Bellucci),  just finished shooting Cronenberg’s “Dangerous Method.”  Cassel says that he and everyone else wants to make the film, but it may have to wait until after another picture from the Canadian director first.

“I sure hope [it happens],” Cassel said confirming his intended involvement. “There’s a script, David Cronenberg wants to do it. The script is really good, so hopefully it’s going to go. I think David wants to make another film before [the sequel], but whenever they’re ready, I told them, ‘I’m here.’ I’m dying to do the sequel, and to be honest to work with Viggo Mortensen and David, it’s such an incredible experience. David is really easy to work with, it feels so [effortless] and when you see the results it’s always very compelling.”

That other film is very likely “Cosmopolis” starring Colin Farrell and Marion Cotillard which last we heard was scheduled to begin shooting in March of 2011.  The $20.5 million film, an adaptation of Don DeLillo’s novel, was penned by Cronenberg himself and is a thriller that follows a multimillionaire (Farrell) on a 24-hour odyssey across Manhattan. Cotillard will play his wife.

This is a long time to wait, but it will undoubtedly be worth it.

Mortensen as Nikolai in "Eastern Promises" (2007)

David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen are re teaming for a return to London’s Russian mob with a currently untitled sequel to “Eastern Promises.”

The Daily Helping is often suspect and wary of sequels.  This is a huge exception.  This site considered “Eastern Promises” a candidate for best film of the past decade, and so with all the principals on board, it’s hard not to be a bit excited. Little is known about the project at this point, but the original writer,  Steve Knight has provided the sequel. That’s another good sign.  The film is already set up at Focus Features and intend to go into production next winter. Apparently the film has actually been in the works since the 2009.  There’s no mention of bring back Naomi Watts, so it will be interesting to see where the story will pick up.

The film will mark the fourth straight film collaboration between Cronenberg and Mortensen ; obviously relishing their working relationship.

If you’ve taken the time to put together a list of your own, please feel free to let us know via the comments page.

5)  Alfonso Cuarón’s film, “Children of Men” (2006).  This has been an excellent decade for Clive Owen.  There are more than a few of his movies that could be on this list.  (“The Inside Man”,  “Gosford Park“) Clive is a resistance fighter protecting what may very well be the last pregnant woman on Earth. It’s  edgy science fiction  that drew an audience primarily by word of mouth. It’s likely to be a timeless film. (Look for the wonderful cameo by the great Michael Cain).

4)” The Departed” (2006). Martin Scorsese can put together any cast he wants to and he started with Jack Nicholson to headline his American version of a twisty Hong Kong mob film called, “Infernal Affairs”.  Scorsese called on his muse,  Leonardo DiCaprio to play a deep under cover cop and the always remarkable,  Matt Damon as a spy for the mob, placed highly with the Boston mob task force. Cat and mouse doesn’t do the tension justice. This was a fantasic movie and the best Scorsese picture since” Goodfellas”.

3) “The Dark Knight”, (2008) arrived with great expectations before the untimely death of it’s co-star, Heath Ledger.  Re-tooled over the past ten years and helmed by the very gifted, Christopher Nolan (“Momento”, “Batman Begins”, “The Prestige”), “The Dark Knight” set a new standard for comic book blockbusters. The energy and special effects didn’t hide the story.  Nolan showed that a big budget summer picture can also have depth, character development and a story that refuses to let go from the opening scene.  Christian Bale wears the gear well, and will for as long as he wants to.

The movie will forever be known for Heath Ledger’s remarkable turn as the Joker.  He  joins Norman Bates and Hannibal Lecter as  one of the most most memorable film villains of all time.

2) “A History of Violence” (2005) and “Eastern Promises” (2007) paired versatile actor, Viggo Mortensen with David Cronenberg, a director known for his independent spirit and taste for the grotesque.  Because these films are equally compelling and razor sharp in their construction; it’s hard to separate the two.

1) “No Country For Old Men” was a 2007 screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s tight little novel of bounty hunters, unrelenting killers, a lot of drug money and a few good people fighting for their lives.  The affection that the Daily Helping has for The Brothers Coen is well documented here on this site.  As gifted as Joel and Ethan happen to be, it was this film that took them to the next level in both box office and critical appeal.  The film was honored with numerous awards, garnering three British Academy of Film awareds, two Golden Globes, and four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Joel and Ethan Coen), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem, in a truly memorable Moe-like hairstyle).

2000

CROUCHING TIGER,HIDDEN DRAGON, CASTAWAY, GLADIATOR, POLLACK, HIGH FIDELITY, TRAFFIC, X-MAN, THE CONTENDER, UNBREAKABLE, U571, WONDER BOYS,CHICKEN RUN, BEST IN SHOW, ERIN BROCKOVICH, CHOCOLAT, AMERICAN PSYCHO, ALMOST FAMOUS, QUILLS, THE PATRIOT,

2001

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, AI ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, GOSFORD PARK, TRAINING DAY, LORD OF THE RINGS-FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, BLACK HAWK DOWN, MULHOLLAND DRIVE, MONSTERS INC., AMELIE, DONNIE DARKO, SEXY BEAST, GHOST WORLD, OCEANS 11, MEMENTO, SHREK

2002

25TH HOUR, MINORITY REPORT, THE BOURNE IDENTITY, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS, ADAPTATION, ROAD TO PERDITION, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, ABOUT A BOY, THE PIANIST, ABOUT SCHMIDT, THE HOURS,

2003

THE STATION AGENT, LORD OF THE RINGS-RETURN OF THE KING, FINDING NEMO, A MIGHTY WIND,LOST IN TRANSLATION. SEABISCUIT, COLD MOUNTAIN, SPIDERMAN, THE FOG OF WAR, AMERICAN SPLENDOR, KILL BILL VOL.1, ELF, 21 GRAMS,THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE, MYSTIC RIVER, CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS,

2004

HOTEL RWANDA, THE INCREDIBLES, NAPOLEAN DYNAMITE, RAY, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF A SPOTLESS MIND, FINDING NEVERLAND, MILLION DOLLAR BABY, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, SIDEWAYS, SPIDERMAN 2, BORN INTO BROTHELS,KINSEY,THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU

2005

THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN, GRIZZLY MAN, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, CRASH, SYRIANA, MUNICH, MILLIONS, CINDERELLA MAN, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, MURDERBALL,THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, CAPOTE,

2006

PAN’S LABYRINTH, CHILDREN OF MEN, THE DEPARTED, DREAMGIRLS, LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA/FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, UNITED 93, THE QUEEN, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, INLAND EMPIRE, FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, CASINO ROYALE, THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND,HOLLYWOODLAND, CHARLOTTES WEB,

2007

ZODIAC, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, RATATOUILLE, THE LIVES OF OTHERS, DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, ONCE, THE HOST, MICHAEL CLAYTON, SWEENEY TODD, PERSEPOLIS, GONE BABY GONE, JUNO, EASTERN PROMISES, THE NAMESAKE, SUPERBAD,

2008

THE DARK KNIGHT, WALL-E, THE WRESTLER, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, MILK, DOUBT,  THE READER, SYNEDOCHE NEW YORK, MAN ON WIRE, RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, IRONMAN, HAPPY GO LUCKY,THE COUNTERFEITERS, THE VISITOR, FROZEN RIVER,FROST/NIXON

2009

THE LOVELY BONES,NINE, UP, THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS, THE HURT LOCKER, PRECIOUS, AVATAR, UP IN THE AIR, PIRATE RADIO, PARANORMAL, ROLE MODELS, THE WATCHMEN, THE ROAD, STAR TREK,INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, MOON, SUGAR, ANVIL-THE STORY OF ANVIL, FUNNY PEOPLE, DISTRICT 9, A SERIOUS MAN,

The Daily Helping is going to share Mr. Ordoña’s list and comments and then add a few of our own. The list is impressive for the most part, with  the exception of number 10.

10 Roman Moroni (Richard Dimitri, “Johnny Dangerously”): Just as Al Capone went to the big house for income-tax evasion, the malevolently malapropping Moroni (“You fargin sneaky bastage … bunch of fargin iceholes”) was convicted of murdering … the English language. The headlines blared his punishment: “Moroni Deported to Sweden. Says He’s Not From There.”

“Johnny Dangerously” was one of a number of Michael Keaton movies that no one saw or remembers seeing. Choosing a guy because he talks like Yogi Berra is a pretty weak way to start this list. If you need to pick someone because he talks funny, how about Jimmy “Two Times” from Goodfellas.  He’s mentioned in the opening of the movie.   Ray Liotta says ..”and then there was Jimmy Two Times, who got that nickname because he said everything twice, like:
“I’m gonna go get the papers, get the papers”.

9 Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci, “GoodFellas”): Martin Scorsese‘s masterwork may be the greatest mobster movie ever, mostly because of his gripping direction. The cocaine freak-out sequence should be taught in film-school editing classes. Pesci’s Tommy, with the deadliest case of short man’s disease this side of Kim Jong Il, made lines such as, “Funny like I’m a clown, I amuse you?” part of the tough-guy lexicon.

A good choice, and I’d add Pesci’s other iconic character, Nicky Santoro in Casino (1995).  Though things went off the rails when he went rogue, the guy was part of a bigger family working out of the back of a Kansas City grocery. Based on a real person who ended up the same way Nicky did in the movie.  (with his brother too!)

8 Al Capone (Robert De Niro, “The Untouchables”): “I want him dead! I want his family dead! … I want to go there in the middle of the night and piss on his ashes!” Chicago’s poet laureate, David Mamet, was the perfect guy to write the screenplay, and De Niro, in yet another stunningly transformative performance, was the last guy you’d want pacing behind you with a baseball bat.

To be honest, The daily Helping is not a fan of the Untouchables, despite the Mamet screenplay. Sean Connery and Frank Nitty stole this movie.  This was an ok choice but not as intriguing as Stanely Tucci’s extremely understated and professional turn as Frank Nitty in Road to Perdition.  Speaking of that movie, it’s worth mentioning Jud Law’s eerie gunman/photographer, Harlan Maguire.

7 Sonny Corleone (James Caan, “The Godfather”): The trash-can beating he administered to his brother-in-law is a classic. Viewers suffered tollbooth phobia that had nothing to do with misplaced FasTrak passes for years after witnessing Sonny’s fate (which Mad magazine attributed to his trying to pay with a large bill). Bonus points: The DVD includes a great Easter egg (hidden feature) of Caan doing a Marlon Brando impersonation.

Sonny belongs here, and it’s safe to say that as memorable as his death scene was, it would have been all the more interesting to have seen Sonny grow up and work with his younger brother, Michael.  The Daily Helping heard a radio interview with Caan not too long ago and it was hard not imagining it was Sonny himself.

6 Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen, “Eastern Promises”): If you had never seen Mortensen before this film, you’d think he was that guy, that the filmmakers had just pulled some Russian dude out of a high-end London nightclub. Equal parts preening macho narcissist and cold-blooded hatchet man, he tops even “Borat” for best naked fight.

Where it not for the mention of the “Borat” fight, I’d be applauding this choice.  Without a question, Eastern Promises and Viggo Mortensen are huge favorites here on Daily Helping.  The part of the movie that delves into the Russian prison tattoos is really interesting and purportedly well-researched.

5 Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro, “The Godfather Part II”): The up-and-coming De Niro was picking up the origin story of an already-iconic character that had won an Oscar for an iconic actor (Marlon Brando in “The Godfather”), and he had to do it in Sicilian, a dialect he had learned just a few years before for another film. His portrayal is not only feeling, thinking and reactive, but it also creates a bridge to Brando’s work that brilliantly illustrates the character’s evolution.

It’s interesting to see that this is for DeNiro’s portrayl of the young Vito, and not Brando’s wise old Don.  Technically this is a mobster who is starting out on his own, but soon establishes an organization that is as much a position of political power as anything else. His people come to him for help and well, they end up owing him a “favor”.  DeNiro played pretty much the same character as David “Noodles” Aaronson in “Once Upon A Time in America”. 

4 Bill “The Butcher” Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis, “Gangs of New York”): One of the great screen villains, which we can now see as Daniel Plainview with one more pin of civility removed. A movie monster on the order of Hannibal Lecter, but with a heart and that disturbing false eye. There is, by the way, no truth to the Internet rumor that Day-Lewis was originally to play “Priest” Vallon to Robert De Niro’s Bill.

Great pick here, and it’s the gold nugget in a pile of swill. With all due respect to Mr. Scorsese, his casting on this film was beyond bad to the point of unwatchable.  DiCaprio and Carmen Diaz felt as if they stumbled onto the set from a different movie, set in a different era.

3 Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini, “The Sopranos”): The best TV mobster ever. Like Vito Corleone, a multilayered family man – but he’s more flawed and real. Bonus points: There’s a classic Easter egg in the bonus disc of the original “Godfather” set in which Tony and the boys try to watch a bootleg copy of the 1972 movie.

There’s little to add here. The Daily Helping agrees and hopes that there will be other original series programing down the road that is on par with the Sopranos.

2 Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando, “The Godfather”): Brando gets the nod over De Niro’s portrayal of the title character because of the older version’s dark mystery and the already arrived quality of the kindly patriarch, who also made people wet their pants in fear. The improvised orange-in-the-mouth ape scene alone, in the greater context of the head of the Corleone crime family, is enough for enshrinement here.

If you haven’t seen the movie, The Freshman (1990), with Brando, Mathew Broderick and the great, Bruno Kirby, then you’re in for a little treat. Not a great movie and in fact, a bit weak on the end…but for the most part, a wonderful spoof on the character Vito Corleone, by Brando himself.  Check it out….

1 Tony Montana (Al Pacino, “Scarface”): One of the rare ultra-violent movies that women love as much as men do. Its excesses are its successes, from the nosedive into a molehill of yayo to the chain-saw-in-the-shower scene. But the true test of this performance’s greatness is to imagine its famous lines delivered by someone – anyone – else. Could even Daniel Day-Lewis or Denzel Washington or Robert De Niro have so unforgettably spat out, “Say hello to my little friend”? No, there is no one else who could have quite pulled off that haircut, that suit, that accent, that je ne sais quoi. It’s Pacino waaaay over the top, where he belongs. And considering the character’s lingering cultural impact, especially in hip-hop, it surpasses even the Godfather himself. So take a look at the bad guy. You won’t see his kind again.

It’s not impossible to understand why Tony Montana is here, though he seemed more of a cartoon character who rose to the top because he had nothing to lose.  It’s interesting that Pacino is here as a coke-snorting psychopath and not as a Corleone. That’s who Daily Helping would have as number 1.

Your thoughts?

Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises

David Cronenberg is a big favorite of Daily Helping. He figures prominently on the short list of those directors that can  put butts in the seats  regardless of what the project may be.  Such success can be fleeting (just ask M Night Shyamalan).

He cut his teeth on campy horror and will soon be working with Cruise and Denzel on a big budget spy movie. Getting to the A-list took about 40 years and his movies are always memorable experiences, positive or not.

Cronenberg is known for his often grotesque visuals and unhealthy obsession with the human body.  It’s also worth noting that as horrific or violent as his work may sometimes be, the list of actors who work with him sing his praises in a way that confirms he will be around for a very long time.

Here are a few of his movies you really should see:

Videodrome may feel a bit dated, but the eerie conspiracy to infect viewers of an obscure cable network with a mind controlling tumor is hard to resist. Deborah Harry created quite a stir by her work in this picture. James Woods is suitably sleazy, paranoid and heroic.

The Dead Zone may quite possibly be the best film adaptation of any Stephen King novel. The television series seems to be fairly popular but this is a movie you absolutely need to see. Fans of Christopher Walken probably own this movie.

The Fly is perhaps one of his most popular movies. The performances by Jeff Goldblum and Gena Davis sell what is on the surface an pretty ridiculous concept. The scientist who turns into a big fly gets pretty graphic as pieces of Goldblum begin to fall away, replaced by bug parts. (This past year Cronenberg wrote an operatic version of his film and it met with great critical reactions both in LA and London) Interestingly enough, The Fly wasn’t a project that Cronenberg initiated.  It was brought to him as a writing project by none other than Mel Brooks.  An interesting choice following his production of The Elephant Man with David Lynch.

Crash is not for everyone. It’s an homage to those who possess a variety of unhealthy fetishes…all primarily dealing with the damaged body.  Starring James Spader and Holly Hunter, the movie is based on the controversial novel by JG Ballard.  It’s about a sub-culture devoted to intentional and accidental car crashes. There’s a sexual undercurrent associated not only with the medical apparatus that’s used to straighten and repair, but also the very scars and burns that remain forever.

A History of Violence and Eastern Promises are fantastic. They team Cronenberg with the very talented Viggo Mortensen in a pair of riveting and violent tales.  The performances are pitch perfect.

If you see any of the movies mentioned above, make sure you see Eastern Promises.   In fact, it’s news about Cronenberg and Eastern Promises that prompted this piece in the first place. Word has it that there will be a sequel. This is one of those very rare times when news of a sequel is enthusiastically welcome.