The two halves of the brilliant Mesrine are only just getting released in the States, and while out on the press circuit, Vincent Cassel has confirmed that he's on board for **Eastern Promises 2.
We already knew that David Cronenberg's sequel to his 2007 Russian-gangsters-in-London original would be reuniting him yet again with his new muse Viggo Mortensen. But this is the first confirmation that Cassel will also return as the monstrous Kirill, responsible first time around for the disappearance of the fourteen-year-old Tatiana and its horrifying details.
Cassel, who's also a part of Dave and Viggo's A Dangerous Method (Cronenberg seems to be building a regular rep company) also let slip that, while the orginal took place in and around London, Eastern Promises 2 will see Nikolai and Kirill heading home: "We talked very seriously about it, and it's going to be shot in Russia." He stressed to The Playlist that nothing is yet set up or tied down, but, he says, "There's a really good script, and Cronenberg wants to do it. I told them that whenever they're ready, I'm there!"
Get ready for plenty more Cassel in the near future: he's in Darren Aronofsky's The Black Swan; he just finished filming an adaptation of Matthew Lewis' gothic novel The Monk; and he'll be starring as Fantomas (the gloriously amoral master of disguise from Louis Feuillade's silent series and its camp 1960s successors) in Christophe Gans' high-profile remake.
Cronenberg's next film seems set to be Cosmopolis, based on Don Delillo's novel (a quirky riff on James Joyce's Ulysses) and starring Colin Farrell and Marion Cotillard. Will** Eastern Promises 2** follow afterwards? Watch this space for updates.