THE VERY CURIOUS CASE OF THE BAD COP REMADE
January 22nd 2009 22:59
That’s right, Herzog’s remake of Abel Ferrara’s searing, blistering, uncompromising character study of despair and desperation, addiction and corruption, resignation and redemption is currently in post-production and due for release in the coming months. The movie is being re-titled Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009) and Nicolas Cage is in the titular role.
The defiant Werner Herzog
DEFAMER: So, yes or no: Is Bad Lieutenant a project you're working on with Nicolas Cage?
HERZOG: Yes, but its not a remake. It's like, for example, you wouldn't call a new James Bond movie a remake of the previous one — although the name of the bad lieutenant is a different one, and the story is completely different. It's very interesting because Nicolas Cage really wants to work with me, and just anticipating working with an actor of his calibre is just wonderful.
D: Why this project, though? You could have worked on anything.
HERZOG: There's an interesting screenplay; it's a very, very dark story. It's great because it seems to reflect a side of the collective psyche — sometimes there are just good times for film noir. They don't come out of nowhere. There was some sort of a mysterious context with the understanding of people in that particular time. And it's going to be in New Orleans, which is a fascinating place. Part of it was the decision of the producers for tax incentives — which is totally legitimate. However, I thought to myself: "We have seen a lot of New York in movies; we have not seen New Orleans in feature films." Or very few feature films. After Katrina it's a particularly interesting set-up. The neglect and politics after the hurricane struck are something quite amazing. It has to do with public morality.
D: Speaking of which, the original film's director, Abel Ferrara, has vowed to fight this project, and —
Harvey Keitel feels the Bad Lieutenant's anguish
HERZOG: Wonderful, yes! Let him fight! He thinks I'm doing a remake.
D: Have you talked to him?
HERZOG: No. I have no idea who Abel Ferrara is. But let him fight the windmills, like Don Quixote.
D: Have you heard his comments at all? He says he hopes "these people die in Hell."
HERZOG: That's beautiful!
D: Do you relate to that passion?
HERZOG: No, because it's like theater thunder. It's like being backstage in the 19th century, with the machines that make thunder. It has nothing do with with his film. But let him rave and rant; it's good music in the background.
D: You did a remake before with Nosferatu, but —
HERZOG: It was not so much a remake as an homage to Murnau. But I don't feel like doing an homage to Abel Ferrara because I don't know what he did — I've never seen a film by him. I have no idea who he is. Is he Italian? Is he French? Who is he?
D: Oh, come on.
HERZOG: Maybe I could invite him to act in a movie! Except I don't know what he looks like …
Hollywood's highest paid actor slums it in the Port of New Orleans
Producer Avi Lerner is all grin for Werner's sin
Herzog wants to remake Bad Lieutenant as a mainstream film?! I’ve got a problem right there! The dark brilliance behind Ferrara’s original was just how un-mainstream the movie was. It was filled with profanity and vulgarity, degradation and humiliation every step of the way. Harvey Keitel bared his body and soul in that movie (not forgetting his full-frontal nudity, but not the first time he’s done that either). I cannot for the life of me imagine Nic Cage, at this stage of his career, performing anything at the level Keitel did for the original Bad Lieutenant. Keitel’s method acting looked very real in those all-too disturbing heroin intravenous administering scenes with the late Zoë Lund (who co-wrote the original screenplay).
How low will Eva go?
The fact that Herzog is dismissing his remake as a remake is ludicrous. I don’t care what you call it: “remake”, “re-envisioning”, “re-boot”. The all-new screenplay is by William Finkelstein, writer of numerous crime shows on television including L.A. Law, Law & Order, Murder One and others, so obviously there will be an attention to police procedure, or at least a solid point of departure. But the key premise remains very similar: a drug-addled and sex-addicted senior policeman is in pursuit of a stone-cold killer. Rather than the original NYC setting, it is now in New Orleans (but that’s really only so Herzog could take advantage of Louisiana tax incentives, and shoot the movie relatively cheaply).
I'm sure Herzog will channel his own interesting interpretation of moral angst and abuse, but the whole production smacks of ill-conception. I’m sure after its release sales of Ferrara’s original will sore, as critics and audiences make their own comparisons. I’m keen to see it, but it’s not with baited breath.
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Comment by Damo
In 8mm he was in a dark world that dragged him in and degraded him. I was convinced that he was a good actor by end of the film.
However we need only look at Ghost Rider to see some absolute crap acting. 'Proudly made in Melbourne.' just like another film that he was working on last year.
Who knows if he wants to do a good job then he may just pull it off.
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