De Niro Talks 'Good Shepherd' Trilogy, Working with Scorsese Again

Slogging through Europe promoting a film that many see as a missed opportunity (What Just Happened?, a prophetic title, no?), Robert De Niro talked to Variety this weekend but was more willing to talk about upcoming projects...even one he wasn't willing to talk about. While in the Czech Republic accepting a lifetime achievement award, De Niro weighed in on the possible actor's guild strike, which he thinks is a bad idea. "“I do not think it is a good time to strike now. The issues could be resolved over the next couple of years (without strike action),” he said. De Niro also indicated his desire to make two sequels to the cold Cold War spy film The Good Shepherd, which despite apathetic reviews, wound up making a surprising $100 million worldwide. Hearing that he'd like to make a trilogy prompts the question, "What, you mean it wasn't already a trilogy?" Hopefully, Bobby D can trim some fat in parts two and three, which he says will move from 1961 to 1989 (the end of the Cold War), and from 1989 to the present. De Niro also announced that he would be working with Martin Scorsese at least two more times. The pair worked on eight films together between 1973 and 1995 - Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, New York New York, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, GoodFellas, Cape Fear, and Casino. Saying it's "a lot of fun to work" with Scorsese, De Niro hinted that they're already working on one project that should be ready next year, but declined to elaborate, telling reporters earlier in the day that he was “superstitious about talking about it.”