Matt Damon has high hopes for the Hollywood remake of Hong Kong blockbuster Infernal Affairs, despite reports of on-set tension between director Martin Scorsese and members of an all-star cast. Oscar-nominated Scorsese has adapted Andrew Lau Wai-keung and Alan Mak Siu-fai's 2002 cops and triads classic as The Departed, moving the drama to Boston and basing the intrigue on the Irish mob. Damon will star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the remake, reportedly occupying the role played by Lau as a gang member who infiltrates the police, with DiCaprio filling the role of undercover cop played by Tony Leung Chiu-wai in the original. 'I'd seen Infernal Affairs and liked it,' Damon says. 'We've literally just finished The Departed so it's hard to talk about because I haven't seen any of it yet. But the script was great and so was working with Scorsese. I think everyone involved has real high hopes for it.' Damon's comments contradict a report in the Boston Herald newspaper that quoted production insiders as saying the set was 'not a happy one'. Damon, who co-stars with Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm, says the opportunity of working with the flamboyant former Monty Python stalwart was too good to miss. The fact that Gilliam allowed him and co-star Heath Ledger to switch roles also impresses Damon. 'That was amazing,' he says. 'We'd have been happy playing either role, just for the opportunity of working with Terry. That's something you'd never pass up.' Damon, who's presently filming Robert De Niro's cold war spy thriller The Good Shepherd opposite Angelina Jolie, wants to try his hand at directing and was a keen student of Gilliam's unique style during the Grimm production. 'It's like horseback riding without reins,' Damon says. 'You just jump on the horse and grab the mane and go, and let it go wherever it takes you. He's very particular. 'He knows exactly what he wants and he's very good at communicating what he wants. Working with him is an object lesson in directing, in how to communicate a vision to a crew of 200 people.' Damon also hit it off with Australian actor Ledger. 'We had a similar approach to work. We're film geeks and we really liked trying to figure out the script and the scenes in order to keep the narrative drive alive. 'And we both want to direct. It was good being able to talk about what Terry was doing, so that when we do eventually direct, there will be elements of what we learned together in this movie in the work that we do down the road.' Meanwhile, Damon is keeping mum on whether he's likely to be chosen as godfather by close friend Ben Affleck, who's expecting a baby with wife Jennifer Garner. 'I think he'd be very smart to make me the godfather,' Damon says. 'I have a lot of money so he should do.'