At the end of Eastern Promises (SPOILER ALERT), we find out Viggo Mortensen’s character is really an undercover British agent.  Between the open ending and the fact that Watchmen and Forgetting Sarah Marshall exposed America’s appetite for full-frontal male nudity (dudity), the time is ripe for a sequel.

“We are moving forward with it,” Cronenberg told MTV News in an exclusive chat. “We all are excited about the idea of doing a sequel.”

The “we” includes Mortensen, who was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role as Nikolai; the film’s screenwriter, Steven Knight; original producer Paul Webster; and original studio, Focus Features.

“We are going to have a meeting very soon between me, Steve Knight and Paul Webster to discuss what the script would be,” Cronenberg said “If all goes well, Steve goes away and writes a great script. If we all like it, we make it.”

I’m a Cronenberg fan, but Eastern Promises was far from his best work.  In this day and age, there’s just no excuse for poorly choreographed fight scenes.  I know a thing or two about naked fights to the death in a Russian bath and I demand realism dammit.

This is the trailer for Good, starring Viggo Mortensen as a colleger professor who slowly succumbs to the charms of Nazism.

The rise of national socialism in Germany should not be regarded as a conspiracy of madmen. Millions of "good" people found themselves in a society spiralling into terrible chaos. A film about then, which illuminates the terrors of now.

Yeah, likely story you Kraut bastards.  You’ll also notice that though the film is set in Germany, everyone speaks the Queen’s English.  It’s pretty much standard practice, but just once I’d like to hear all the Germans talk like coal miners from West Virginia, or dock workers from New England, or harelipped Polacks.  Crap, I took it too far again didn’t I.  

Two movies I’m excited about in a row?  I think this is some kind of record.  Either that or the coke’s working.  EEEEEEE!

Anyway, John Hillcoat’s currently hard at work directing a film adaptation of The Road, from No Country for Old Men author Cormac McCarthy.  If you’ve never read Cormac McCarthy, his sentences are as long as they are nonsensical, and yet somehow awesome.  Also, most of his books are really violent.  They’re basically like a Wesley Willis song that stabs people in the face.

The pic comes courtesy of RopeofSilicon, and in it, Viggo Mortensen seems to be saying, “Son… I’ve been bitten by a rattlesnake on the penis.  …You’re gonna have to suck out the poison.”  Or perhaps I’m reading too much into it. 

Charlize Theron will join Viggo Mortensen in John Hillcoat’s (The Proposition) adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 bestseller The Road.  McCarthy also wrote No Country for Old Men.

The Road follows a man and a boy, father and son, journeying together for many months across a post-apocalyptic landscape, several years after a great cataclysm has destroyed civilization and most life on earth. What is left of humanity now consists largely of bands of cannibals and their prey, refugees who scavenge for canned food or other surviving foodstuffs. In the novel, ash covers the surface of the earth; in the atmosphere, it obscures the sun and moon, and the two travelers breathe through improvised masks to filter it out. Plants and animals are apparently all dead (dead wood for fuel is plentiful), and the rivers and oceans are seemingly empty of life.

Apparently, it was also an Oprah Book Club selection (maybe a double feature with this and Great Debaters?).  So between Oprah liking it and the plot involving cannibals (which aren’t too much different than zombies), I’d be ripping on this pretty hard if it wasn’t a Cormac McCarthy book.  It also won the Pulitzer Prize, which I refuse to respect until they start a movie blog category.

Word around the campfire is Phillip Seymour Hoffman* and Viggo Mortensen (fresh off Eastern Promises**) are set to star in Vanikoro for Hitman director Xavier Gens.

The French explorer La Perouse, was wrecked on Vanikoro in 1788. The ship Boussole was destroyed on a reef along with most of the crew. The second ship Astrolabe was also wrecked, but survivors salvaged enough to build a small ship and sailed away. Two survivors remained on the island into the early 1800′s. [BloodyDisgusting via JoBlo]

Ironically, Astrolabe is the protagonist in my unproduced space porno.

Extra Tidbit: Apparently, Mortensen got so into character during the filming of LOTR, that Peter Jackson referred to him in conversation as Aragorn for over half an hour without him even realising it.

Golly, he must’ve been all up in that character! Additional tidbit: Peter Jackson once had an entire chicken leg stuck in his beard after a meal and didn’t even notice.

*Worthy of all the attention he’s getting for his part in Charlie Wilson’s War
**Second most overrated movie of the year behind Atonement