While most of us are still reeling from the fact that Drive, one of the best films of the year, nabbed a grand total of one Oscar nominations (for Best Sound Editing, no less), director Nicolas Winding Refn seems undeterred. The Danish filmmaker is hard at work on his follow-up, the Thailand-set Only God Forgives starring Ryan Gosling, and he seems keen on using his newfound success to further (pardon the pun) drive his career forward. The director recently gave a brief interview in which he was asked about the possibility of a sequel to Drive. While I all but expected the director to outright state that he has no intention of continuing Driverâs story, his answer took me a bit by surprise. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.As you may or may not know, Drive was based on the novel of the same name by author James Sallis. While it deviated quite a bit from the source material, Refnâs film used many of the same situations and overarching plot from Sallisâ novel. The author recently announced that he would be releasing a sequel to Drive, called Driven, this April. When asked in an interview with ShortList (via The Playlist) whether or not he had any plans to adapt the sequel, Refn responded thusly:
âWell I think that... hmm. Let me just say that I havenât made up my mind yet. Stranger things have happened...â
Now I understand that this is about as "non-answer" as you can get, but I pretty much assumed that Refn hadnât given a sequel to Drive a second thought. Though it certainly sounds like the chances of a feature adaptation are slim, itâs interesting that Refn hasnât taken the option completely off the table just yet. The plot of Driven takes place six years after the events of the first book, and centers on someone wanting Driver dead (obviously). Iâm not entirely sure Refn's film begs for a follow-up, but I canât say I wouldnât relish the thought of returning to that universe once again with Refn at the helm and Gosling behind the steering wheel.
In addition to that tidbit of non-information regarding a Drive sequel, Refn also revealed that he was actually quite keen on directing an episode of the wildly popular British series Doctor Who. So why didnât he? The powers-that-be said ânoâ:
âI would have loved to direct Doctor Who but they didnât want me â they turned me down last year. Maybe if they revive Blakeâs 7 I could do that. I love it. Itâs great. That could be fun to update.â
Iâm assuming that now, given Refnâs clout, producers of the series might change their minds. However, the director is pretty busy for the foreseeable future. Heâs currently filming Only God Forgives in Thailand (which also stars Kristin Scott Thomas), and he and Gosling are developing an ambitious remake of Loganâs Run. Whether or not a Drive sequel figures in there somewhere is anyone's guess, though I wouldnât hold my breath.