Nicholson avoided film ‘Departed’ is based on

HONG KONG — Actor Jack Nicholson told a Hong Kong newspaper that he avoided watching the local crime thriller “Infernal Affairs” when he was shooting the Hollywood remake, “The Departed,” directed by Martin Scorsese.

“I wanted to concentrate on Scorsese’s movie, and what it was going to become as we went through the process,” Nicholson was quoted as saying in the Sunday edition of the South China Morning Post.

“We were reconceiving as we went and, from the beginning, that’s what made this different,” he said.

Slideshow: Celebrity Sightings “Infernal Affairs,” which starred Cannes best actor winner Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Hong Kong heartthrob Andy Lau, is about a police officer who goes undercover in a Hong Kong gang and a local gangster who infiltrates the police.

Apart from Nicholson, the Hollywood remake also features Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin.