For some time now there have been talks of a sequel to the film Road To Perdition. Starring an all star cast which included Paul Newman, Jude Law, Tom Hanks and Daniel Craig, the 2002 film revolved around a hitman and his son and their relationship after the son witnesses what his father does for a living.
The film was based on the graphic novel by Max Allan Collins. Earlier rumours had suggested that Collins had written a screenplay based on the follow up graphic novel, Road To Purgatory. Comic Book Movie is reporting that Collins recently spoke about the screenplay in an interview and apparently we may be getting closer to seeing the film on the big screen. Here’s an excerpt of the interview:
Is there anything you can tell us about the status of Road to Purgatory? We reported on it a few years ago that you were adapting your own graphic novel and were directing the film. Is there anything you can tell us about that?
Max Allan Collins: Well, I can only tease, I’m afraid. We seem to be right on the brink, or maybe it’s the precipice, I don’t know (Laughs), of a deal being signed. Things have gotten very, very serious and I have, for years, held onto it as a project I would direct, because I have directed five independent films. It does look like, now, that I won’t be directing, but it is my script. That’s the most important thing to me, that the material be faithfully rendered. That isn’t to say that you have to do it absolutely faithfully. There certainly are differences between my graphic novel and Road to Perdition, but the spirit of the story is there. Mendes really got it and understood it and, I think that, in some ways, enhanced it.
Can you tell us who will be directing this then?
Max Allan Collins: I don’t know. We’ve been approached and the offer seems to be very, very serious. We have signed a round of paper but it is not nailed down yet and it looks to be pretty interesting. I will tell you that this will happen about 10 years after Perdition ends. Michael is 10 years older in Road to Purgatory.
The plot of Road To Purgatory seems like it could make for a great film. The following is the Amazon summary (it does contain spoilers from Road To Perdition)
Michael O’Sullivan Jr., the boy who had tagged along with his gangster father on a road-trip mission of vengeance against Al Capone’s Chicago mob, only to see his dad murdered, is now in his early 20s. He no longer carries his birth name, but has become Michael Satariano, the adopted son of Sicilian restaurateurs in DeKalb, Illinois, a town not far from the Windy City. It’s 1942, and Michael has just returned to the States from a disastrous military campaign in the Philippines that (at the cost of his left eye) won him the first Congressional Medal of Honor awarded during World War II. Changed by the rigors of battle into an impassive killing machine, Michael finds it hard to settle back into his previous life and settle down with high-school girlfriend Patty Ann O’Hara (she of the dimples and Lana Turner figure). So when former “Untouchable” Eliot Ness, now heading a federal office charged with “safeguarding the health and morale of the armed forces,” asks him to take on a perilous undercover gig–infiltrating Capone’s syndicate in order to curb its criminal enterprises–Michael can’t agree fast enough. He blames the ex-Alcatraz inmate for his father’s slaying, and sees in this assignment the prospect for retribution. However, as Michael worms his way into the mob, gaining the trust of Capone lieutenant Frank Nitti, winning the heart of celebrity madam Estelle Carey (a woman with her own risky agenda), and planning a deadly assault on Scarface at his Miami estate, Michael discovers that ascribing blame and exacting justice aren’t the easy tasks he’d imagined. He also learns that he’s more like his late father than he had realized–a point emphasized in a 1922 flashback, which finds Michael O’Sullivan Sr. rescuing Irish gang boss John Looney and protecting Looney’s ruthless scion.
I for one would love to see a sequel to Road To Perdition. Although it didn’t perform well at the box office, it was very well reviewed and I really enjoyed it. It boasted tremendous performances from all the lead cast members and it was a great story. Hopefully we will get to see Road To Purgatory on the big screen sooner than later.
Check out the trailer for Road To Perdition below: