Matt Damon has high hopes for the Hollywood remake of Hong Kong blockbuster Infernal Affairs, despite reports of on-set tension between director Martin Scorsese and members of an all-star cast.
Oscar-nominated Scorsese has adapted Andrew Lau Wai-keung and Alan Mak Siu-fai's 2002 cops and triads classic as The Departed, moving the drama to Boston and basing the intrigue on the Irish mob.
Damon will star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the remake, reportedly occupying the role played by Lau as a gang member who infiltrates the police, with DiCaprio filling the role of undercover cop played by Tony Leung Chiu-wai in the original.
'I'd seen Infernal Affairs and liked it,' Damon says. 'We've literally just finished The Departed so it's hard to talk about because I haven't seen any of it yet. But the script was great and so was working with Scorsese. I think everyone involved has real high hopes for it.'
Damon's comments contradict a report in the Boston Herald newspaper that quoted production insiders as saying the set was 'not a happy one'.
Damon, who co-stars with Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm, says the opportunity of working with the flamboyant former Monty Python stalwart was too good to miss.
The fact that Gilliam allowed him and co-star Heath Ledger to switch roles also impresses Damon. 'That was amazing,' he says. 'We'd have been happy playing either role, just for the opportunity of working with Terry. That's something you'd never pass up.'
