When L.A. Confidential Sequel Was Scrapped Recalled By Star Of Original 99% RT Crime Thriller: "It Was A No-Brainer For Me"

L.A. Confidential star Guy Pearce has recalled how close the critically acclaimed movie came to receiving a sequel. Based on the novel of the same name by James Ellroy, the 1997 crime movie served as one of the first US movies to bring Australian actors Russell Crowe and Pearce to widespread international attention. Generating considerable critical and commercial success, L.A. Confidential would also garner nine Academy Award nominations, ultimately winning Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Kim Basinger.

Speaking with Business Insider, Pearce was asked how close L.A. Confidential came to receiving a sequel. Recalling that director Curtis Hanson had called to tell him he was discussing a sequel with Ellroy about 10 years after the movie’s release, Pearce states he was keen to return alongside Crowe with the original movie’s whole team. Describing the project as “a no-brainer,” sadly Hanson would later fall ill and pass away in 2016. Check out his comments below:

At a certain point, Curtis called me and said, "Just so you know, I'm talking to ["L.A. Confidential" author James] Ellroy about specifically writing a sequel." It would have been ten years later. And he wanted me to be involved. I told him I'm on board, no question. And Russell [Crowe] would return as well. Curtis' whole thing was it needed to be the same team, Warner Bros., me, Ellroy, Russell. It was a no-brainer for me. That got developed to a certain degree and then Curtis got sick and sadly passed in 2016.

The Movie Is Unlikely To Happen Now

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Pearce’s most recent comments are not the first time audiences have learned how close an L.A. Confidential sequel came to becoming a reality. Years after the original movie was released, plans for a second movie were set in motion with the late Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman intended to join Pearce and Crowe. Said to be playing a young police officer named James Muncie, L.A. Confidential 2 would have been set in the year 1974, some 21 years after the events of the last movie.

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However, after Warner Bros. ultimately passed on the project, attempts to find a new home for the project did not go quite as planned. In 2023, screenwriter Brian Helgeland revealed that when he and Ellroy originally went to pitch the movie to Netflix, one of the streamer’s executives fell asleep during the meeting, ultimately prompting him to halt their efforts to sell the project to other studios. Since that original pitch, the respective deaths of Boseman and Hanson, have also put a hamper on any chances of the planned sequel moving forward.

With both Pearce and Crowe onboard, combined with the talents of Boseman, it is hard to think that the decision for both Warner Bros. and Netflix to pass on L.A. Confidential 2 was anything but a missed opportunity.

Making the situation more unfortunate, is Pearce's eagerness in reprising his role as Detective Edmund "Shotgun Ed" Exley. With both Pearce and Crowe onboard, combined with the talents of Boseman, it is hard to think that the decision for both Warner Bros. and Netflix to pass on L.A. Confidential 2 was anything but a missed opportunity.

Our Take On L.A. Confidential’s Big Screen Future

Other Books Could Be Adapted

While hopes for a direct sequel to Pearce and Crowe’s 1997 hit may have all but dissipated, Ellroy’s original books may still find fresh life on the big screen. Brian De Palma’s 2006 movie, The Black Dahlia, is also an adaptation of one of Ellroy’s famous L.A. Quartet books. Additionally, multiple plans for an adaption 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 being attached at some point.

Sadly, audiences may never see Pearce and Crowe return for L.A. Confidential 2, but Ellroy’s novels still present a veritable gold mine of potential noir-crime movie material. Perhaps with the right pitch, studios may look to eventually return to Elroy’s crime-ridden version of 1940s and 1950s Los Angeles and introduce audiences to a whole new version of Detective Ed Exley and Bud White.

Source: Business Insider