Anyone who says that Oscar buzz is a myth clearly hasn't met William Monahan. He was already one of the most in-demand screenwriters in town, after Kingdom of Heaven and The Departed, but after his Oscar win on Sunday for the latter, he's been linked to two new projects in the last 24 hours. What did he do? Skip the parties and go straight into meetings?
First up is The Long Play with Martin "At Last!" Scorsese, which is described as "a rock 'n' roll epic" following two friends in the music business from the early days of R'n'B to contemporary hip hop. (Surely in that case it's not so much with the rock and/or rolling?). Monahan will be rewriting a script that's already gone through several drafts by Rolling Stone writer Rich Cohen, and by Matthew Weiss, from an original idea of Scorsese's. Mick Jagger is producing, which is perhaps where the rock comes in, after he and Scorsese worked together on a Stones gig movie last autumn.
But where, we hear you cry, does this leave The Departed sequels? Well, Scorsese and Monahan have discussed them, but this will be the next project that Monahan does with the director, so consider those on the back burner - especially since that's only a fraction of Monahan's workload.
He's also re-teaming with Departed star and treehugging hero Leonardo DiCaprio for** Confessions of Pain**, another remake of a Hong Kong thriller from the team behind Infernal Affairs, the film on which The Departed was based. DiCaprio's producing and planning to star, as either a cop or a private investigator, childhood friends who team up to investigate the murder of the cop's father-in-law and discover that nothing is as it seems. Monahan will executive produce the film as well.
Monahan also has scripts at various stages of development for Jurassic Park IV, Wartime Lies, Tripoli, Penetration (for Ridley Scott) and Marco Polo. DiCaprio's also lined up The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Blink and The Chancellor Manuscript. And Scorsese's also working on that Rolling Stones film, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Silence, The Invention of Hugo Cabret and, as producer, on a Queen Victoria biopic. And Monahan and Scorsese could reteam for a Departed sequel. Our advice? Don't get too attached to the idea of any of these films - just be grateful that they're all keeping busy, whichever of these make it to the screen.