The Departed


The Infernal Affairs trilogy is one of Hong Kong's great movie trilogies, a labyrinthine cops-and-gangsters epic that jumps back and forth in time. Brad Grey and Brad Pitt bought the rights to the English remake, and Martin Scorsese is set to direct. I'm not generally a fan of American remakes of foreign properties that are fine as is, but Scorsese receives the benefit of the doubt, always.


His remake is currently titled The Departed (IMDb currently uses the Infernal Affairs poster as a placeholder) and will star Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in the roles of the undercover cop and gangster, roles originally played by Tony Leung and Andy Lau. Instead of being set in Hong Kong, the remake will locate the story in Boston, where the Boston police force and an Irish-American gang do battle. I read somewhere that Scorsese was condensing all three episodes of the trilogy into one movie, though to do so he'll have to lop off a lot. Jack Nicholson will play the Irish-American mob boss, taking the role of Sam (played by Eric Tsang) in the original. The cast will also include Mark Wahlberg.