Abel Ferrara Not Jumping For Joy Over 'Bad Lieutenant' Remake

You get weird or at least understandably strained reactions from filmmakers when the prospect of a remake of one of their movies comes up. Orson Welles, in the months before his death, confided in friends not to let Ted Turner take "his goddamn crayons" to Citizen Kane, a reference to the short-lived trend of colorizing black and white films. Of course, Turner now owns one of the most impressive and steadfastly maintained catalogs of older film at TCM, and Kane has never been colorized. But director Abel Ferrara's recent reaction to the news that his Bad Lieutenant will be remade is one for the books. The NC-17 film, a character study of a drugged-out and corrupt cop played by Harvey Keitel, will reportedly be updated by Werner Herzog - no slouch - and Keitel's role will be filled by Nicolas Cage. Instead of offering even slight professional praise for Herzog or at least wishing his colleague well, Ferrara made it very clear that he's not happy about the remake: “As far as remakes go, Harvey (could be Weinstein, could be Keitel) begged me not to say anything mean, or stupid. But I wish these people die in Hell. I hope they’re all in the same streetcar, and it blows up.” For the record, most people are already dead by the time they get to Hell, so Ferrara not only wants them to descend there while still alive (which might take special permission or something), but once they're in Hell, he apparently wants there to be a trolley explosion. No offense to the very pissed off Abel Ferrara - lest he wish I die in a bizarre jet ski accident on the other side - but I've never pictured Hell with streetcars. Or public transit of any sort, really. Maybe buses. They're pretty hellish. But streetcars just don't denote eternal suffering to me. So I figure it would go like this: Werner Herzog is vacationing with Nic Cage in Hades and Cage turns to Herzog and says something like, "I'm so glad we found this place before everyone else in show business. In two years, this will be like the Hamptons or South Beach." And Herzog will say, "Only with delightful streetcars. Wait. What's that ticking sou---" But I digress... As Karina Longworth reports, the director later interrupted another journalist who suggested Bad Lieutenant was being remade. "It hasn’t been remade yet,” charged Ferrara. “But it will be,” shot back the the reporter, to which Ferrara replied, shaking his head, "Don’t count on it.” Ferrara has been in France promoting his documentary Chelsea on the Rocks at the Cannes Film Festival, and it was also at Cannes where word first spread about the Bad Lieutenant remake. So maybe he was being more acerbic than he normally would. In any case, if there's room on his streetcar, can I make a reservation for whoever the hell is involved with Meet Dave? I mean, surely Eddie Murphy's in town a lot re-upping his deal with the Devil, so...

Comments

[colin boyd [that other one]]

i think that Abel Ferrara's reaction is appropriate. or, i just like it.