Warner Bros. passed on a sequel to the critically acclaimed L.A. Confidential that would have starred the late Chadwick Boseman. Upon its release in 1997, in the midst of Hollywood's infatuation with neo-noirs, the original L.A. Confidential was a critical and commercial darling, and is today considered a modern classic. The film followed a trio of police officers investigating a string of murders in 1950s Los Angeles and starred relative unknowns Guy Pierce and Russell Crowe, alongside Kim Basinger and Danny DeVito. L.A. Confidential went on to be nominated for nine Academy Awards and won two - one for Basinger for Best Supporting Actress and another for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Boseman, best known for playing the role of King T'Challa/Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, tragically passed away in August 2020 after a long battle with colon cancer. The actor's final film, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, was released later that same year to critical acclaim and resulted in the actor being posthumously nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards in 2020 and awarded the award for Best Actor at the Screen Actor's Guild Awards. Before his passing, Boseman was able complete voice-work on Marvel's What If...? but that is expected to be the actor's final role.
Now, as revealed by The Ringer, it seems that Boseman would have starred in a sequel to L.A. Confidential had the film not been rejected by Warner Bros. Original writer, Brian Helgeland, pitched a possible sequel to the studio that would have taken place in the 1970s and starred Boseman as a young police officer alongside the film's original cast. The writer allegedly developed the screenplay with novelist James Ellroy, who wrote the novel the original film was based on, and according to Helgeland himself, they had "worked the whole thing out. It was great. And Warners passed.”
The news that Warner Bros. chose to pass on a potential sequel to a critically acclaimed film is a surprising one, and sadly the film must be assigned to the "what could've been" pile of film history. It's a shame, too, as Boseman was an incredibly accomplished actor with a string of incredible performances under his belt, including Ma Rainey and Da 5 Bloods. He would have undoubtedly complimented the already stand-out cast from the original film and helped to elevate the sequel to a whole new level. At the same time, neo-noirs aren't exactly the soup de jour at the moment, so it's understandable why Warner Bros. may have passed on the film, although that doesn't make it any less of a wasted opportunity.
While there is no information about what the L.A. Confidential sequel would have entailed, its 1970s setting could have seen the film tackle racial issues from the time, not dissimilar to BlacKkKlansman. Of course, this is mere speculation and it's unlikely that we will ever see the potential sequel come to fruition. Moreover, it's unclear whether Helgeland would want to do so without Boseman. Still, it's interesting to speculate over what might have been.
Source: The Ringer
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