The Screengrab : the bad lieutenant

Screengrab's 2008 Person of the Year

Scott Von Doviak — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Next to People's Sexiest Man Alive, there is no more coveted honor in Hollywood than Screengrab's Person of the Year. At least, that's what we're hoping; we've never actually done it before. After combing the archives over the past year, I have determined the five individuals who recieved the most coverage - for good or for ill - here at our humble blog. Can you guess Screengrab's Person of the Year? The top five, after the jump:

5. Zooey Deschanel

Described by our Phil Nugent as "the unofficial muse of the Screengrab," Ms. Deschanel has an open invitation to our New Year's Eve party. We celebrated her SXSW performance, her survival of the Shyamalan bomb The Happening, her role in the surprisingly influential All the Real Girls, and her "Sweet Ballad" in Yes Man. Call us, Zooey!

4. Werner Herzog

The year in Werner news began with the director reminiscing over his gravedigging days with Errol Morris. Later, Herzog expounded on his many unmellow moods. More shocking developments arrived with the Cannes Film Festival, at which it was announced that Herzog would remake The Bad Lieutenant, a very bad idea indeed. Abel Ferrara agreed, and a celebrity feud was born. Next, Werner signed a cocktail napkin deal to collaborate with fellow weirdo David Lynch. In the end, Herzog redeemed himself with the acclaimed (here, anyway) Encounters at the End of the World.

3. Heath Ledger

Dying at the beginning of the year is perhaps not the most satisfying path toward Screengrab Person of the Year. We ran the breaking news of his death, the initial coroner's report, the Esquire diaries, the fate of Terry Gilliam's Doctor Parnassus and the somewhat unseemly buzz on Ledger's Oscar chances. We'd prefer he was only on this list for his performance as the Joker, but that's life (and death).

2. Uwe Boll

We're a little hurt that our favorite crapmeister hasn't been in touch to thank us for all the publicity. We've covered everything from the petition urging him to retire to his many feuds to the efforts of a gum company to end his career. We've reviewed his Unwatchables Alone in the Dark and BloodRayne 2: Deliverance, and watched as theaters shunned Postal. Heck, Paul Clark even defended the man! Come on, Uwe. Take out an ad in Variety to thank us already.

1. Scarlett Johansson

Oh Scarlett, what would we do without you? I think you can tell the Screengrab is sharply divided over you. Phil Nugent, for one, has little use for you, as you can probably tell from posts like Scarlett Johansson, Yellow Journalism, Grammys Snub Scarlett, Toast Tia, Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds: 2 B 2-Gether 4-Ever and Scarlett Johansson Sings! Sings Tom Waits Songs!! Others of us - like me - are more enamored of your attributes, as you might glean from such posts as Scarlett Johansson, Cover Girl, Your Scarlett Johansson Music Video Has Arrived, and the all-time favorite, And Now Scarlett Johansson Making Out with Penelope Cruz. Either way, there's no denying it: Scarlett Johansson, you are Screengrab's 2008 Person of the Year!

Morning Deal Report: Nicole Kidman Marries Charlize Theron

Scott Von Doviak — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:30:00 GMT

If the voters of California had visualized that headline, Prop. 8 might have had a completely different outcome. Alas, it’s a match made only for the movies (as far as we know): Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron will star in The Danish Girl. Kidman plays artist Einar Wegener, a man with a very smooth forehead who, with the encouragement of his wife Greta (Theron), adopts a female guise for a series of portraits. “What began as a harmless game led Einer to a metamorphosis and landmark 1931 operation that shocked the world and threatened their love,” per The Hollywood Reporter. That operation? Well, it ain’t liposuction.

As we await Werner Herzog’s highly unnecessary version of The Bad Lieutenant, news reports of an even less essential remake have surfaced. Larry Clark (Kids) will direct an update of Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa, per Screen Daily. But that’s not all! “Hayden Christensen is in formal negotiations to take the lead in HandMade's remake of Mona Lisa. He will take on a younger version of George, the character made famous by Bob Hoskins in the original.” I’d rather see Bob Hoskins as Anakin Skywalker, but maybe that’s just me.

More! We demand more bad remake news! How about this: “Columbia Pictures is back in the dojo with a new version of the 1984 hit The Karate Kid, which has been refashioned as a star vehicle for Jaden Smith,” Variety reports. That’s Will Smith’s 10-year-old boy, who co-starred with his dad in The Pursuit of Happyness.

Related:
Charlize Theron Is a Sexual Creature
Werner Herzog's Very Bad Idea

Morning Deal Report: Roman Polanski Sees a Ghost

Scott Von Doviak — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:30:00 GMT

The controversies of his past are back in the headlines thanks to a recent HBO documentary, so what better time for Roman Polanski to get back to work? Polanski will adapt the Robert Harris political thriller The Ghost, with Nicolas Cage, Tilda Swinton and Pierce Brosnan, Variety reports. “Cage will play a ghostwriter hired abruptly to finish the memoirs of an ex-British prime minister after the first scribe turned up dead. The ghostwriter's research leads him to uncover skeletons in the pol's closet that put the writer's life in danger.” Alas, this doesn’t mean Cage’s Bad Lieutenant remake has fallen through; Ghost will shoot after he completes his work with Werner Herzog this summer.

William Hurt and Zach Gilford will be fishing in The River Why, adapted from the novel by David James Duncan. Per the Hollywood Reporter, this “coming-of-age tale centers on a young man named Gus Orviston (Gilford) and his quest for an elusive rainbow trout, which is a metaphor for the man's internal search for self-knowledge.” Or maybe he’s just hungry.

Finally, that sequel to The Host you’ve been waiting for is on the way. According to Variety, Chinese director Ning Hao will helm the follow-up to the Korean horror film. The sequel “will have to tread carefully to avoid criticizing the Chinese government. Story will concern a calamity caused when people ignore a monster due to their desire for money.” Sounds like another one of those metaphor thingies.

Related:
The Roman Exile: 30 Years and Counting
Werner Herzog's Very Bad Idea

Werner Herzog vs. Abel Ferrara: Round 2

Scott Von Doviak — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Last time we checked in with the developing saga of Werner Herzog’s planned remake of The Bad Lieutenant, the original film’s director, Abel Ferrara, had extended his best wishes for a fruitful collaboration between Herzog and star Nicolas Cage. Either that or he wished they’d die in Hell, I forget. Herzog himself has been mum on the subject, but now he’s broken the silence to clear the air. Or something like that.

Ostensibly interviewing Herzog about his new documentary about life in Antarctica, Encounters at the End of the World, those pranksters at Defamer couldn’t resist asking a few questions about the Bad Lieutenant remake. First of all, says Herzog it’s 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.”

While Harvey Keitel’s tormented cop roamed the streets of the New York, Herzog has a different setting in mind. “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.”

As for Ferrara, Herzog is delighted with the angry auteur’s wish for his fiery demise, although he professes not to actually know who he is. “Maybe I could invite him to act in a movie! Except I don't know what he looks like.”

So let’s see if I’ve got this straight. Herzog’s remake is actually a continuation, except it’s a different cop with a different name in a different city, but aside from that, it’s actually a franchise akin to James Bond. I think I’m more interested now. But I’m not sure.

Related:
Werner Herzog's Very Bad Idea
Let's Get Weird with Werner Herzog and David Lynch

Abel Ferrara Would Like Werner Herzog and Nicolas Cage to Please Die in a Fire

Scott Von Doviak — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:30:00 GMT

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!

Let’s Get Weird with Werner Herzog and David Lynch

Scott Von Doviak — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Why do we get the feeling Werner Herzog arrived in Cannes early, hit the open bar and woke up in an alley 17 hours later with a splitting headache and a pocketful of deal memos scrawled on cocktail napkins? Apparently he’s a guy who just can’t say no, but whatever the case, he’s definitely been a busy bee. Yesterday we told you about his highly dubious plan to remake The Bad Lieutenant with Nicolas Cage. This morning brings news of yet another project, this one a collaboration with David Lynch.

The two offbeat auteurs are teaming up for My Son, My Son, “a horror-tinged murder drama based on a true story.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Herzog and his longtime assistant director Herbert Golder co-wrote Son, loosely based on the true story of a San Diego man who acts out a Sophocles play in his mind and kills his mother with a sword. The low-budget feature will flash back and forth from the murder scene to the disturbed man's story. A guerrilla-style digital video shoot on Coronado Island is tentatively set for March.”

Lynch will executive produce the project, but that’s not all he has on his plate. His Absurda label will also bring us the return of a director who could out-weird both Herzog and Lynch with one hand tied behind his back: El Topo maestro Alejandro Jodorowski. Asia Argento, Udo Kier and Nick Nolte will star in the “metaphysical gangster movie” King Shot. The Reporter notes that “Marilyn Manson is touted to appear as a prophet in the Sin City-style film, which producer Eric Bassett said has enough sex and violence to guarantee an NC-17 rating.”

Now it’s time for Werner to get some sleep, before we find out he’s agreed to do the next version of The Hulk or something.

Werner Herzog’s Very Bad Idea

Scott Von Doviak — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Werner Herzog is remaking The Bad Lieutenant with Nicolas Cage. I can’t stop him.

According to Variety, “Nicolas Cage will star in an updated version of 1992's Bad Lieutenant with Werner Herzog directing, Edward R. Pressman producing and Avi Lerner's Nu Image/Millennium Films financing.” How many red flags can you possibly cram into one sentence? First and foremost, Lerner is the schlockmeister behind the recent Al Pacino fiasco 88 Minutes and Pacino’s upcoming re-teaming with Robert De Niro, Righteous Kill, as well as the latest Rambo reboot. His slate of upcoming productions is crammed with remakes and sequels, including yet another Rambo, re-launchings of both Conan and Red Sonja, Undisputed 3 (there was an Undisputed 2?) and the long-anticipated-by-someone Poe biopic written and directed by Sylvester Stallone.

He also produced The Wicker Man remake, which presumably is where Nicolas Cage comes into this. Well, I already knew Cage was shameless. I just want to know how Herzog got roped into the project. As described by Variety, the original 1992 Bad Lieutenant “followed the depraved New York police officer of the title, who was heavily involved in drugs, gambling, sex and stealing; the pic received an NC-17 rating.” That’s sort of putting it mildly. Love it or hate it, Lieutenant was an intensely personal vision from writer/director Abel Ferrera, with a truly out-on-a-limb performance from Harvey Keitel. It would hardly seem to be remake fodder, anymore than say, Eraserhead or Herzog’s own Aguirre: The Wrath of God. Would Herzog really be okay with Abel Ferrara remaking that? For all I know this project may have Ferrara’s blessing, and it’s not that I’m such a huge fan of his anyway, but something about this just reeks of crossing a line that ought not be crossed. This doesn’t help: “The new script's penned by Billy Finkelstein, a TV writer with credits on Murder One, Law & Order and NYPD Blue.”

Hopefully Herzog will have an announcement of his own soon. I’d love to know what he’s thinking.