When we first brought you the news of Werner Herzog’s planned remake of The Bad Lieutenant starring Nicolas Cage, we wondered whether the director of the original version, Abel Ferrara, was cool with his intensely personal vision being monkeyed with. Now we have an answer, which appears to be: not so much.
According to Spoutblog, Ferrara addressed the issue during his Cannes press conference for his latest effort, Chelsea on the Rocks. “Ferrara twice talked about Werner Herzog’s alleged Nicolas Cage-starring remake of his Bad Lieutenant,” writes Karina Longworth, “once in response to a question from a reporter, and once just because he apparently felt like he needed to vent. First, 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.’”
So yeah, he seems pretty cool with it. Later a reporter mentioned the remake and Ferrara responded, “It hasn’t been remade yet.” When told that it would be, he said, “Don’t count on it.” Could there be litigation in the future? But they’ve already gone to the trouble of making this handsome poster!
