Herzog does a Remake? Of Bad Lieutenant ??!!??
File under Strangest News of the Day.
Millennium films - purveyor of misguided trash along the lines of 88 Minutes and War Inc. - is fast-tracking the remake of Bad Lieutenant (yes, that Bad Lieutenant!) with Nicholas Cage to star, and shockingly, Werner Herzog to direct.
Abel Ferrara’s original 1992 film is a grimy NC-17 classic (one of those endurance litmus tests along the lines of Funny Games and Happiness) that makes you want to simply take a shower after watching it. The remake, by the sounds of it is going to aim for a mainstream audience. The audience that stayed away in droves from Herzog’s uplifting and heroic story of Rescue Dawn. This is wacky, wacky stuff kids.
why? Its interesting because Herzog has never done a film that is explicit violently or sexually, I could be wrong. Surely not excessively.
Comment by rot — May 14, 2008 @ 9:32 am
I’m not a particular fan of Bad Lieutenant but I have to say it could make for an interesting discussion for a future Movie Club podcast
Comment by rot — May 14, 2008 @ 9:42 am
Herzog seems above the remake business and is often of higher calibre director wise than is ever approached for these type of things and Cage is simply too wacky for this type of film which was such a delicate balance between exploitation, morality, spirituality, and trash.
And Avi Lerner simply produces craptastic films that rely on their star-power.
And the screenwriter has said he is positioning the story to be post-911 new york material with a back story (and heck, this time a name) given to the Lieutenant. This seems like an incredibly stupid way to approach this.
It’s one of these vortexes of such oddness of talent/people that I’m compelled to watch this potential train-wreck in slow motion…
Comment by Kurt Halfyard — May 14, 2008 @ 9:50 am
I guess the appeal for Herzog may be that it is a depiction of the kind of nihilist worldview he continually adopts, but still…
Comment by rot — May 14, 2008 @ 10:38 am
Herzog, nihilistic? Hmm. Have to think about that.
Comment by Rusty James — May 14, 2008 @ 4:22 pm
Listen to Herzog’s narration in Grizzly Man how he thinks that nature is chaos, that sounds pretty nihilistic to me.
Comment by rot — May 14, 2008 @ 4:46 pm
Rot, yeah I thought you were going to that scene…
isn’t Nihilism the belief that man’s existence is futile and without purpose?
you know what, I don’t think Bad Lieutenant is Nihilistic either. It’s actually about one bad guy who manages to make a difference in the world.
I’m an atheist but I find the spiritual elements of the movie quite moving.
Comment by Rusty James — May 14, 2008 @ 5:09 pm
If nature is chaos that would make man’s existence pretty futile.
as for Bad Lieutenant I saw it so long ago I entirely forget how it ends so you may be right. What sticks with me is this stripping away of all moral decency…
Comment by rot — May 14, 2008 @ 6:03 pm
Hey, I’m a Herzog fan, and I have yet to see a film of his that wasn’t, at the very least, interesting. But this does seem a bit strange, especially from a director who is usually so original. I thought the closest he would ever get to a ‘remake’ was when he turned his own documentary, LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY, into last year’s RESCUE DAWN. Guess I was wrong.
Comment by Dave — May 14, 2008 @ 6:46 pm
Might I remind everyone that Herzog remade Nosferatu? It’s quite good as well.
Comment by Jay C. — May 14, 2008 @ 8:02 pm
Doh! Forgot about that one! It’s damn good. Rats! Still remaking a take on Dracula is hardly a remake, the story is pretty iconic, if I’m not mistaken there are more vampire movies (spanning all genres, including Ballet!) than any other type of movie monster.
Comment by Kurt Halfyard — May 14, 2008 @ 8:11 pm
Yeah, but J’s right it’s still a remake. KK’s Count Orlock is obviously based on Max Shrek’s. And his film’s keeps the name changes (for instance it’s called Nosferatu).
He also remade the shot for shot english language version of Nosferatu. So really Herzog was the original remake pioneer.
Comment by Rusty James — May 14, 2008 @ 9:55 pm
Absolutely correct Rusty.
Comment by Kurt Halfyard — May 14, 2008 @ 10:17 pm
Raise your hand those who want to see Nic Cage masturbate in to a car window on two teenage girls and strut around fucked out of his head on drugs with his junk hanging loose.
Comment by swarez — May 15, 2008 @ 3:24 am
‘Might I remind everyone that Herzog remade Nosferatu? It’s quite good as well.’
Touche, Jay. You are 100% correct. I, too, completely forgot about that one.
Comment by Dave — May 15, 2008 @ 3:52 am
“Raise your hand those who want to see Nic Cage masturbate in to a car window on two teenage girls and strut around fucked out of his head on drugs with his junk hanging loose.”
Didn’t we see that already in ConAir?
Comment by Kurt — May 15, 2008 @ 5:47 am
Yeah we have been seeing Cage masturbate for some time now.
Comment by rot — May 15, 2008 @ 6:50 am
From Spoutblog reporting on Abel Farrara in Cannes:
”
Farrara tagged a comment about the remake on to his answer to a question about working outside the Hollywood system. “As far as remakes go, Harvey [Weinstein? Not mentioned in this Variety story in connection to the project. Keitel, who starred in the original? Hmmmm....] begged me not to say anything mean, or stupid. [pause] But I wish these people die in Hell. I hope they’re all in the same streetcar, and it blows up.”
”
Ouch.
Comment by Kurt Halfyard — May 24, 2008 @ 5:50 pm
Who would win in a fight between Farrara & Herzog? I go Herzog… but then again if there’s any living director qualified to go head to head with Herzog it’s Fararra.
Comment by Rusty James — May 24, 2008 @ 7:36 pm