When Scorsese met Lau

Joe Harvey | February 13, 2013 | Reply

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News to delight fans of Infernal Affairs (2002) and its English-language remake, The Departed (2006). Respective directors Andrew Lau and Martin Scorsese are collaborating on Lau’s second Hollywood outing, Revenge of the Green Dragons, which despite sounding like the title of a naff Nintendo game, is actually a New York-set gangster flick. The film hones in on the relationship between two brothers in the Chinese-American gang named, no prizes for guessing, the Green Dragons, as revealed by The Hollywood Reporter. Revenge of the Green Dragons is penned by Michael Di Jiacomo and is inspired by a true story in the New Yorker, by Fredric Dannen, who has given the film his blessing.

Scorsese’s remake of Infernal Affairs delighted critics and fans alike, as it stormed to number one at the box office, appearing on top ten list after top ten list, and winning him his only Oscar to date. Lau’s source film, meanwhile, was accredited with breathing life into Hong Kong cinema, and spawned a prequel and a sequel, which were both released in 2003. The trilogy represents Lau’s greatest success, but with Scorsese watching over his shoulder as executive producer, he will hope to surpass that achievement as he looks to establish himself in Hollywood, after his previous effort, The Flock (2007), was condemned to a straight-to-DVD release.

The film also acts as Scorsese’s return to New York, home of some of his most acclaimed efforts, including Mean Streets (1973) and Goodfellas (1990). Fans of Scorsese’s genre work will hope Revenge of the Green Dragons will be a case of different mob, same outcome.

Will Revenge of the Green Dragons live up to the potential generated by the coming together of two greats of the crime genre? And will Lau stamp his style on Hollywood?

About

Joe Harvey runs the Newsdesk and keeps TLFR up to date with all the latest News, Trailers and Rumours (and sometimes we think he probably just makes it all up...) Makes us laugh at least once a day. Also a screenwriter currently working on the follow-up to his debut feature, 'Sweetboy', which is currently in post-production.