De Niro on Taxi Driver, Midnight Run Sequels

Robert De Niro seems to have reached a point in his long and celebrated career where he's increasingly open to the idea of sequels, so much so that he's discussed two possibilities at length with MTV - a return to the world of Travis Bickle in a Taxi Driver follow-up and a sequel to his 1988 buddy comedy, Midnight Run. Frankly, neither of these are particularly bright ideas, though perhaps there's something to be a said about a scenario which finds Bickle, perhaps imprisoned, stepping out into a New York that's drastically different from the one he'd left more than four decades ago...But who knows? That's just us nerding out.

About another Taxi Driver film, De Niro said, "I had talked to [writer] Paul Schrader and [director Martin Scorsese] about what would happen to Travis these years later. And we had a thing and we tried to figure it out and Paul was trying to come up with something and it just didn't seem to work...You never know-- something could come up. But I thought it would be interesting to find a way to bring him back all these years later. Probably ironic where he would wind up -- as he did even in the first one -- all these years later. It's still possible."

Regarding Midnight Run, his team-up with actor Charles Grodin and director Martin Brest, De Niro revealed that while Grodin's Jonathan Mardukas would not be returning, his namesake might make an appearance.

"Yes, we're gonna do, hopefully, a sequel. The script is pretty good. I don't think [Martin Brest] would direct it-- we're figuring that out now," said De Niro before revealing, "It's [Mardukas'] kid."

Certainly opens the door for a Charles Grodin cameo, don't you think?