It was back in December 2006, and then again in February of 2007 that Robert De Niro talked about making The Good Shepherd a trilogy, and still with the might of his name behind it we haven't seen anything progress, and he's still talking about the trilogy idea and still not pushing it onwards.

The Good Shepherd was a strong film and had some wonderfully filmed moments, I did enjoy it and definitely think there's room for more films following the birth of the CIA and the man at the fore of it, James Jesus Angleton.

In both previous stories he talks about making two more films, taking us from the end of the Cold War and into the Iraq War. The second film would cover from when the Berlin Wall was erected to when it fell, and the third covering the fall of Communism to the present day, and perhaps even the Iraq War.

That last film has always sounded a bit over optimistic to me, first that Communism hasn't actually finished and that the Iraq War could be an entire film on its own.

He's still talking about it though through Variety and Coming Soon.

There he says that he's like the first film to cover from 1961 to 1989, and the second to the present day, still encompassing the Iraq War. However he's very clear that he's not researching the stories yet, so that means we're some time off seeing a trilogy, if in fact we'll see it at all.

Personally I'm doubtful. In the Variety article he's talking about doing two more The Good Shepherd films with Martin Scorsese with the next one being ready by next year, so that's a fair bit of time from his career. I don't think we'll see it even beginning proper research for a couple of years yet, and then to see the films could be a long way off, by which time Robert De Niro could be back into the poor comedy run again.