Speaking with the U.K. Independent , Robert De Niro has revealed his intentions and hopes to develop two sequels to his sophomore directorial effort “The Good Shepherd.”
“I’d like to do another story from 1961 until 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall,” the actor-director revealed. “That’s what we’re talking about now. Then I’d like to do a third film from 1989 to the present. I’d like to make it a trilogy.” Makes sense, the film was a pet-project that DeNiro tried to get off the ground for nine years.
The long (just shy of 3 hours) and slightly snoozey 2006 thriller about the birth of counter-intelligence featured an illustrious cast that consisted of Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, William Hurt and Billy Crudup who all reportedly made strong impressions on De Niro.
“If I couldn’t have worked with certain actors in ‘The Good Shepherd’ – Matt Damon and a couple of others – I wouldn’t have done the movie. To make a film is hard work, and if you don’t have the right combination, it’s not going to work,” he admitted. “I like to direct actors. Casting is 95 per cent of it – if you find the right actor, most of your problems are solved. You just make adjustments along the way.”
‘Shepherd’ was originally written for Francis Ford Coppola by Eric Roth (“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button”) in the mid ’90s, but was rejected by the “Godfather” director. De Niro then agreed to helm the project on the condition that Roth would write a follow up about the CIA’s time between the Bay Of Pigs invasion and the fall of the Berlin Wall – a project De Niro had originally wanted to set up and now looks ready to develop.
But will someone fund it? The original had a budget of approximately $80 million, only grossed $59 million domestically and topped out around $100 million internationally. With marketing, promotion, etc. that’s little profit if any at all. Reviews were mixed too. An almost 3 hour CIA thriller with no action and a “gentlemanly” approach to retribution and murder? Maybe there’s a reason it took nine years to get the first one off the ground initially.