Los Angeles Confidential star Guy Pearce recalled how close the critically acclaimed film came to getting a sequel. Based on the novel of the same name by James Ellroy, the 1997 crime film served as one of the first US films to bring Australian actors Russell Crowe and Pearce to widespread international attention. Generating considerable critical and commercial success, Los Angeles Confidential it would also receive nine Oscar nominations, winning Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Kim Basinger.
Talking to Business InsiderPearce was asked how close Los Angeles Confidential it even received a sequel. Recalling that director Curtis Hanson called to say he was discussing a sequel with Ellroy about 10 years after the film's release, Pearce says he was looking forward to returning to Crowe's side with the entire team from the original film. Describing the project as “a no brainer”, unfortunately, Hanson later fell ill and passed away in 2016. Check out their comments below:
At one point, Curtis called me and said, "Just so you know, I'm talking to ["L.A. Confidential" author James] Ellroy on specifically writing a sequel. "It would have been ten years. And he wanted me to be involved. I told him I'm on board, without a doubt. And Russell [Crowe] I would come back too. The whole thing with Curtis was that it needed to be the same team, Warner Bros., me, Ellroy, Russell. It was a no-brainer for me. This developed to a point and then Curtis fell ill and sadly passed away in 2016.
The film is unlikely to happen now
Pearce's latest comments aren't the first time the public has discovered how close a Los Angeles Confidential sequel came to fruition. Years after the release of the original film, plans for a second film were initiated with the late Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman intended to join Pearce and Crowe. He is said to play a young police officer named James Muncie, Los Angeles Confidential 2 would have been set in 1974approximately 21 years after the events of the last film.
However, after Warner Bros. finally rejected the project Attempts to find a new home for the project did not go as planned. In 2023, screenwriter Brian Helgeland revealed that when he and Ellroy were originally pitching the film to Netflix, one of the streamer's executives fell asleep during the meeting, which caused him to halt his efforts to sell the project to other studios. Since the original proposal, Boseman and Hanson's respective deaths have also hampered any chance of the planned sequel moving forward.
With Pearce and Crowe on board, combined with Boseman's talents, it's hard to think that Warner Bros.' decision will be successful. Los Angeles Confidential 2 it was anything but a missed opportunity.
Making the situation more unfortunate is Pearce's eagerness to reprise his role as Detective Edmund “Shotgun Ed” Exley. With Pearce and Crowe on board, combined with Boseman's talents, it's hard to think that Warner Bros.' decision will be successful. Los Angeles Confidential 2 it was anything but a missed opportunity.
Our take on LA Confidential's big screen Future
Other books can be adapted
While hopes of a direct sequel to Pearce and Crowe's 1997 hit may have faded, Ellroy's original books may yet find new life on the big screen. Brian De Palma's 2006 film, The Black Dahlia, is also an adaptation of one of Ellroy's famous films Los Angeles Quartet books. Additionally, several plans for an adaptation of his 1992 novel White Jazz have also been in the works since the late 1990s, with names like Nick Nolte, John Cusack, George Clooney and Chris Pine all attached at some point.
Unfortunately, audiences may never see Pearce and Crowe return to Los Angeles Confidential 2but Ellroy's novels still present a veritable gold mine of potential noir crime film material. Perhaps with the right tone, the studios could eventually return to Elroy's criminal version of 1940s and 1950s Los Angeles and present audiences with an entirely new version of Detective Ed Exley and Bud White.
Source: Business Insider