Xixax Film Forum

Film Discussion => The Vault => Topic started by: MacGuffin on May 13, 2008, 06:11:43 PM

Title: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on May 13, 2008, 06:11:43 PM
Nicolas Cage to star in 'Bad Lieutenant'
Werner Herzog to helm the remake of the 1992 cult classic
Source: Hollywood Reporter

CANNES -- Nicolas Cage will star in Werner Herzog's remake of the 1992 cult classic "Bad Lieutenant" for financier Nu Image / Millennium Films.

Pressman Film Corp. will produce the new version of its original Abel Ferrara NC-17 film about a drug- and sex-addicted corrupt cop. Cage takes the role originated by Harvey Keitel, with TV police show writer Billy Finkelstein scripting. Production begins in July, with exec producer Avi Lerner promising it will deliver as much filth as the original.

Ed Pressman and Stephen Belafonte will produce. Nu Image/Millennium's Danny Dimbort, Lerner, Trevor Short and Boaz Davidson will executive producer with Elliot Rosenblatt, Alessandro Camon and Randall Emmet.

Herzog, who follows up the film with Focus Features' "The Piano Tuner" later this year, is repped by Gersh. Cage, whose Saturn Films is also producing, is repped by CAA.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: john on May 13, 2008, 06:38:25 PM
Werner Herzog is making a remake of Bad Lieutenant?

If there was any way to make me exciting about Nicolas Cage in another fucking remake of a film that wasn't clamoring to be remade in the first place... this is it.

I gotta keep my expectations in check, otherwise I'm liable to believe this might actually be better than the original - which still stands as one of the ten best films of the 1990's.


Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: squints on May 13, 2008, 10:35:41 PM
what

the

fuck?
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: 72teeth on May 14, 2008, 02:43:20 AM
Quote from: squints on May 13, 2008, 10:35:41 PM
what

the

fuck?

bares repeating...



What


The


Fuck?
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: w/o horse on May 15, 2008, 06:15:23 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on May 13, 2008, 06:11:43 PM
Nicolas Cage to star in 'Bad Lieutenant'
Werner Herzog to helm the remake of the 1992 cult classic

I totally feel right now like the Halloween fans felt with Zombie's remake - as in take what you want to use and do with it what you will, but there really isn't a reason to use the same title or act like there's any lineage between the two.  You know how Zombie said he wasn't even a real Halloween fan, I bet Herzog would say that about Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, he's going to say that or he's going to say "I'm a great fan, so I'm not going to use the title."  Because of all the Herzog films I've seen, and the Ferrara films I've seen, there's no reason for this to happen this way.

Is my first thought.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on May 19, 2008, 06:20:30 PM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mtv.com%2Fmovies%2Fphotos%2Fc%2Fcannes_posters_051908%2Fbad_lieutenant.jpg&hash=8da650aac50c75ccf00186909b0fd969236a5c9e)
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on June 05, 2008, 02:19:19 AM
Exclusive: The Bad Lieutenant is NOT a Remake!
Source: Edward Douglas; ComingSoon

Werner Herzog might be one of the most prolific film directors working today, having directed 56 films in a career that's spanned over 45 years. He's not resting on his laurels either now that he's past the normal age of retirement, since recently, his name was attached to two very different projects from his norm: A police thriller with the familiar name of The Bad Lieutenant and an adaptation of Daniel Mason's The Piano Tuner. When Herzog came to New York to promote his new Antarctica doc Encounters at the End of the World, ComingSoon.net asked him about his new projects.

One thing the German filmmaker wanted to stress and make clear is that his next movie The Bad Lieutenant starring Nicolas Cage is NOT a remake of the 1992 Abel Ferrara of the same name, a movie made famous for Harvey Keitel's full frontal nude scene. (Incidentally, The Piano Tuner has nothing to do with Keitel's other full frontal movie The Piano either, in case you were wondering.)

"No, it's not a remake," he told us quite adamantly. "You have to delete that from your memory, though we may not be able to delete it from public perception. It's like I keep saying, 'A James Bond film, the newest one, is not a remake of the previous one; it's a completely different story.' It only has a corrupt policeman as the central character and that's about it."

"You won't be able to make it clear, because it will perpetuate itself," he lamented when it was suggested that word might get out that this is a different movie. "Once a notion like this is out, you can never correct it. Of course, it's very fascinating to work with Nicolas Cage, he really wanted me to be the director on this film. It can't get any better."

He brushed off our suggestion that he's mainly famous for being a director who works outdoors or in the wild, which would make his next film more interesting, since it would set in the city. "I haven't made everything out in nature. Some of the films that are better-known, but I realized recently in Torino, Italy, they had a retrospective of my films, and it was 55 or 56, and I thought, 'Dammit, I made a lot.' Only a small but rather significant part is out in wild nature, like in the jungle or Antarctica or in Alaska, but it doesn't mean I have a total fixation of wild landscapes out there."

When suggested that he might be able use the techniques he learned in those famous films to explore the concrete jungle in a similar fashion, he also disagreed. "You can't do it in this project because there's a very clear story that is written and there's a certain urgency in the drives of narrating the story, so you have no real time to explore certain city spaces or cityscapes."

The Bad Lieutenant is a top priority for Herzog right now, since the project came together very fast with a limited time in which he can get the film done. "'The Bad Lieutenant' has to be done during a window of opportunity for Nicolas Cage which is coming very, very soon, so I have to scramble to get pre-production done. In this case, financing was unclear and I thought it probably was not going to happen, and then all of a sudden, two weeks ago, I'm called, 'Come immediately, we have to start immediately, because money is there, Nicolas Cage wants to have me as director.' It was a fine moment, because I had a good negotiating position with the production company. They have been good in doing it from out of nowhere from one day to the next. Of course, we'll have bumps in the road as always happens in movies. Don't expect that I'll be in the city and things will be easy. There will be some problems en route, and for all movies that have ever been made." (It's great to see that Herzog's sardonic wit and cynicism is still alive and well.)

Waiting patiently on deck is Herzog's own script for The Piano Tuner which he plans on tackling after finishing the police thriller.

At one point, there was talk about a narrative drama based on the life of Timothy Treadwell, the bear-loving explorer most famously captured in Herzog's 2005 documentary Grizzly Man, but Herzog was skeptical of that movie ever being made. "I don't think that's ever going to happen," he said when asked about his involvement. "I believe that Leonardo DiCaprio bought the rights and at that time, he thought that Treadwell was a true Prince Valiant who boldly defended the bears, but when DiCaprio saw my film, that was the end of his dream of doing the Prince Valiant version. You can't outdo Timothy Treadwell as an actor."
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on July 02, 2008, 11:43:34 PM
Kilmer, Xzibit join 'Bad Lieutenant'
Duo added to cast of Herzog-directed remake
Source: Variety

Val Kilmer and Xzibit have joined Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes in "Bad Lieutenant," the Werner Herzog-directed remake of the 1992 Abel Ferrara cult hit.

Nu Image/Millennium Films is financing.

Cage plays a cop on the edge, and Kilmer will play his partner. Xzibit is playing a nemesis named Big Fade, in a re-imagining of the film.

Edward R. Pressman is producing with Alan and Gabe Polsky, Stephen Belafonte, Emmett/Furla's Randall Emmett and Cage's Saturn Films.

William Finkelstein wrote the script. Avi Lerner, Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson, Elliot Rosenblatt and Alessandro Camon are exec producers.

Kilmer recently completed "Streets of Blood" while Xzibit (Alvin Joiner) will next be seen in the Fox release "X Files: I Want to Believe."
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: hedwig on July 05, 2008, 06:11:47 PM
why does Xzibit keep getting cast in films i wanna see?  :yabbse-undecided:
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Alexandro on July 06, 2008, 01:13:52 PM
is Herzog doing this film just to keep working? it keeps sounding more and more like a terrible idea.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: matt35mm on July 06, 2008, 03:00:45 PM
Why y'all buggin'?  Shit ain't even start shootin' yet.

Encounters at the End of the World was fantastic, so maybe Herzog hasn't lost his marbles quite yet.  If you can't give the benefit of the doubt to Herzog, who can you give it to?
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Alexandro on July 06, 2008, 05:48:49 PM
Quote from: matt35mm on July 06, 2008, 03:00:45 PM
Why y'all buggin'?  Shit ain't even start shootin' yet.

Encounters at the End of the World was fantastic, so maybe Herzog hasn't lost his marbles quite yet.  If you can't give the benefit of the doubt to Herzog, who can you give it to?

i will see the film so i'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. and what's the point of a thread like this if we can't come in here and say this sunds like a bad idea...or a good one?
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on September 05, 2008, 12:19:33 AM
Herzog's 'Bad Lieutenant' Will Reboot Character, Dial Down 'Judeo-Christian Programming'
Source: MTV

Call "Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans" what you will — a head-scratcher, a leap of faith, a, gulp, bad idea – just don't call it a remake, star Nicolas Cage said, quite literally echoing statements director Werner Herzog told Defamer this past June.

"It's a new version of 'Bad Lieutenant' in a whole new place. [Herzog] connects it to Bond - like there was more than one Bond," Cage told MTV News. "[I play] a whole new character. He's nothing like Harvey [Keitel's] character."

Herzog has gone on record as saying that one of the things which most attracted him to the project was a chance to dabble a little in film noir. But while the style might be somewhat new for the legendary director, the underlying themes and questions will be anything but, Cage insisted.

"[The original] movie was a result of Judeo-Christian programming," Cage said of where the two will most diverge. "This one is much more existential." Thanks Nic, there goes my hope for more brutal nun rape.

But what of other sexual horrors? In the original, Keitel famously flashed little Harvey. Will Cage follow suit? Just how much time will he spend naked in the film?

"That remains to be seen," Cage said, laughing heartily, refusing to divulge whether or not he would appear nude on-screen.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on September 11, 2008, 01:22:17 AM
Eva Mendes Plays Prostitute In 'Experimental' New 'Bad Lieutenant'
Source: MTV

Rebuking all the early talk about "Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans," being a remake, star Nicolas Cage recently compared his character to James Bond.

All fine and good – but even James Bond never had a woman like this: "I play a character who is Nicholas Cage's love interest, and she is a working girl, she is a prostitute who is very damaged," Eva Mendes said of her hitherto secret character in the film. "I'm a prostitute so I'm a criminal in that sense, but it's kinda hard to explain. There's actually a very sweet love story between Nic's character and mine, in a very warped and dark, dark world."

Dark, but not despairing, pointed out Mendes, who said that the grim and brutal tone of the original film, it's violence and sexuality especially, will not carry over to Herzog's version.

"[The original was] very provocative and harsh for the sake of being provocative and harsh and in your face, and although I do have a provocative streak about me, it's never for shock value. I don't want to be shocked in any way," Mendes said, visibly shaking while talking. "Certainly there is nothing that I was in this film that was like that."

Mendes was much more coy when it came to spilling details on the plot of the film, except to say that it was a murder mystery in a post-Katrina world.

"I have no idea what we made in a way because it was so experimental," she said. "I don't know [what it's gonna wind up being]."
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on October 16, 2008, 01:50:34 AM
Filmmaker Magazine: What are your feelings about Werner Herzog doing his version of Bad Lieutenant?

Ferrara: He can die in hell. I hate these people – they suck. A, he don't know me, couldn't pick me out of a line-up. B, I'm chasing windmills. Well, I'd rather chase windmills than steal other people's ideas. It's lame. I can't believe Nic Cage is trying to play that part. I mean, if the kid needed the money... It's like Harvey Keitel said, "If the guy needed the money, if he came to us and said, 'My career's on the rocks,' I'd cut him a break." But to take $2 million – I mean, our film didn't cost half of $2 million. That film was made on blood and guts, man. So I really wish it didn't upset me as much as it does.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: w/o horse on October 16, 2008, 10:35:09 AM
Quote from: MacGuffin on October 16, 2008, 01:50:34 AM
Filmmaker Magazine: What are your feelings about Werner Herzog doing his version of Bad Lieutenant?

Ferrara:  That film was made on blood and guts, man. So I really wish it didn't upset me as much as it does.


Is the very true comment here.  We know Herzog doesn't sense this or mean for his film to overstep or exploit the intimacy of Ferrara's film, he's stated his obliviousness, but his updating Bad Lieutenant into a neo-noir is basically like someone taking Persona and turning it into a horror film.

And Ferrara, for those of you who don't know Ferrara, has this kind of heavy drinking bad boy image, and he says pretty outrageous stuff regularly, so this is completely in character.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Pozer on October 16, 2008, 10:59:23 AM
he's an ass and needs to die in hell with comments like this..

"Nic Cage, Werner Herzog ... I hope they're in the same streetcar when it blows up."
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Alexandro on October 16, 2008, 11:03:53 AM
i still don't understand why they just don't name it differently.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: RegularKarate on October 16, 2008, 12:49:10 PM
Quote from: Alexandro on October 16, 2008, 11:03:53 AM
i still don't understand why they just don't name it differently.

Sad Lieutenant
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: hedwig on October 16, 2008, 01:09:29 PM
they should just basterdize the title.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on March 10, 2009, 08:44:52 PM
Werner Herzog Hasn't Seen Original 'Bad Lieutenant'
Source: MTV

When Werner Herzog's retooled "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" enters theaters later this year, don't expect to see a tuned-in retelling of director Abel Ferrara's original "Bad Lieutenant." In fact, expect Nicholas Cage and Eva Mendes to be doing something completely different.

"I haven't seen ['Bad Lieutenant']," Herzog told MTV News outside the Academy Awards this year. "So I can't compare it. It has nothing to do with it."

Herzog clarified that his film is its own story, and though this edition of "Bad Lieutenant" may share a name with its predecessor, it's going to be a cop noir all of its own making. He went as far as to say that his film will reinvent the genre.

"I think it's a new form of film noir," he said, echoing Nicholas Cage's explanation that it would be a reboot of Ferrara's concept in the vein of the James Bond franchise turn with Daniel Craig.

"It's not a remake," the director said. "It's a completely independent autonomous story." But he did forecast big things for Cage's performance in the lead role previously held by Harvey Keitel.

"Nicolas Cage was terrific," Herzog stated. "You will see something extraordinary when you see him on screen. It's the best he's ever done."
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: w/o horse on March 10, 2009, 09:24:22 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on March 10, 2009, 08:44:52 PM
Werner Herzog Hasn't Seen Original 'Bad Lieutenant'
"I think it's a new form of film noir," he said, echoing Nicholas Cage's explanation that it would be a reboot of Ferrara's concept in the vein of the James Bond franchise turn with Daniel Craig.

Fuck you.

Everyone I know already knows I've decided not to see the movie no matter what.

And Xixax might and should know my love for Herzog.  But Xixax may also know how stubborn I can be, and Herzog and Cage have pressed too many buttons that I take personally.

A slightly tangent anecdote is that I have this friend who is not epileptic but has twice had seizures while watching the original Bad Lieutenant.  True.  Why he went back for the second one is a great question but I didn't ask it.

Film noir.  Fuck you assholes.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: SiliasRuby on March 10, 2009, 10:07:04 PM
The more and more I read about it the more and more I want to see what Werner Herzogs take is, Nicolas cage and Eva Mendes be damned. hehe.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: w/o horse on March 10, 2009, 10:15:43 PM
Quote from: SiliasRuby on March 10, 2009, 10:07:04 PM
The more and more I read about it the more and more I want to see what Werner Herzogs take is

Quote from: MacGuffin on March 10, 2009, 08:44:52 PM
Werner Herzog Hasn't Seen Original 'Bad Lieutenant'

I mean I get what you're saying but you're just being a Herzog with your phrasing.

. . .

It doesn't matter, of course.  I'm just really drunk and I wanted to know what you thought about my car.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: john on March 10, 2009, 10:22:38 PM
That's good news to me. Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant is one of the ten best films of the nineties and maybe the best film in Ferrara's depressingly overlooked filmography (seriously, any motherfucker who've yet to see The Funeral and New Rose Hotel, get on it). It's untouchable, unrivaled. It will continued to be untouchable, unrivaled.

But this film is going to be made no matter what. Pressman wants or needs the cash and will exploit any property can to make that cash.  This would have been made with or without a terrific director involved - we're just lucky it's Herzog. Nearly anyone else would infuriate me, but this excites me. It's even more exciting that if they let Ferrara return to the property and make a new film out of it - that wouldn't be exciting.

The fact that Herzog hasn't seen the film makes me even more excited. My anticipation isn't at Tree of Life/WTWTA levels - but it's close.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Stefen on March 11, 2009, 12:08:54 AM
Quote from: w/o horse on March 10, 2009, 09:24:22 PM
Quote from: MacGuffin on March 10, 2009, 08:44:52 PM
Werner Herzog Hasn't Seen Original 'Bad Lieutenant'
"I think it's a new form of film noir," he said, echoing Nicholas Cage's explanation that it would be a reboot of Ferrara's concept in the vein of the James Bond franchise turn with Daniel Craig.

Fuck you.

Everyone I know already knows I've decided not to see the movie no matter what.

And Xixax might and should know my love for Herzog.  But Xixax may also know how stubborn I can be, and Herzog and Cage have pressed too many buttons that I take personally.

A slightly tangent anecdote is that I have this friend who is not epileptic but has twice had seizures while watching the original Bad Lieutenant.  True.  Why he went back for the second one is a great question but I didn't ask it.

Film noir.  Fuck you assholes.

HAHA.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Gold Trumpet on May 27, 2009, 08:04:12 PM
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxB0yXfpQZ8
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Stefen on May 27, 2009, 08:09:16 PM
oh. My. GOD.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: john on May 27, 2009, 08:44:06 PM
That looks nothing like the film I imagined in my head.

Initially, watching that trailer,  I was a bit disappointed... as it progressed, I got really excited. I no longer have the conviction to say this is going to be a success, but it is going to be real, real interesting and I'll continue to root for it.

Quote from: Stefen on May 27, 2009, 08:09:16 PM
oh. My. GOD.

Actually, that pretty much sums it up.

Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: polkablues on May 27, 2009, 08:44:54 PM
I demand a Bad Lieutenant/Wicker Man double feature.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: squints on May 27, 2009, 09:16:23 PM
holy shit.

"you don't have a lucky crack pipe?"


i really don't know what to think.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: SiliasRuby on May 27, 2009, 09:18:31 PM
This is going to be the best thing he's done since 'ADAPTATION'....It has everything I've ever wanted in a film
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: squints on May 28, 2009, 02:39:22 AM
honestly, this looks like it could be the best TV SERIES on television. not a movie though.

godspeed to you werner.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: modage on May 28, 2009, 07:58:34 AM
Quote from: polkablues on May 27, 2009, 08:44:54 PM
I demand a Bad Lieutenant/Wicker Man double feature.

that's exactly how i'm going to watch it.  for unintentional laughs, which it looks like it has many.  remember. (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=1997.msg34187#msg34187)
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Pozer on May 28, 2009, 11:35:57 AM
i thought Snake Eyes looked good too.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: SiliasRuby on May 28, 2009, 11:51:18 AM
Hey Hey HEY!!!!! 'Snake Eyes' was awesome.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on May 28, 2009, 12:03:30 PM
When watching that trailer, this one came to mind:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2276851993/
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Alexandro on May 28, 2009, 12:32:37 PM
this looks like...an instant classic.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: pete on May 28, 2009, 12:37:32 PM
werner, werner!
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: RegularKarate on May 28, 2009, 01:09:56 PM
Quote from: modage on May 28, 2009, 07:58:34 AM
that's exactly how i'm going to watch it.  for unintentional laughs, which it looks like it has many.

I don't know how unintentional it is though.  I have the feeling this is all pretty intentional... but the fact that Cage's insanity is being used intentionally here is what makes it interesting.

After he did Deadfall, I think he just decided acting is best when it's borderline retarded.  I think his POV on acting is properly explored in Sonny (which contains one of my favorite Cage performances).  He knows it's ridiculous, he just thinks it's good.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Gamblour. on May 28, 2009, 01:36:22 PM
This sums it up for me, courtesy of Beaks on AICN:

"AVATAR might fuck your eyeballs. BAD LIEUTENANT's gonna put iguanas on your coffee table."
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on June 02, 2009, 12:53:39 AM
Who will buy Werner Herzog's 'Bad Lieutenant'?
Source: Los Angeles Times

Haven't you always wanted to see Nicolas Cage as a crack-addled homicide cop, tearing up the streets of New Orleans, squeezing a hooker's butt, threatening witnesses, imagining he sees iguanas on his police captain's desk and cutting off an old lady's oxygen supply when he needs a quick piece of information?

If the new unofficial trailer that's popped up everywhere on the Web is any indication, Werner Herzog's new version of "Bad Lieutenant," which stars Cage, Eva Mendes, Xzibit and Val Kilmer, could be an instant camp classic. (It's a quasi follow-up to Abel Ferrara's notorious 1992 policier that starred Harvey Keitel as a drug-crazed cop on the loose in New York.)

Judging from the trailer, Herzog didn't pull any punches, though it's hard to say whether the film leans more toward Herzog's chilly, doomsday vibe or Cage's uproariously kitschy, scenery-chewing mania. In my favorite scene, Cage is riding around with a car full of nasty bad guys, happily toking away on what he calls his lucky crack pipe. One of the thugs laughs, saying "You're a crazy [cop]." Cage's deadpan response: "You don't have a lucky crack pipe?"

The movie was financed by Avi Lerner's Millennium Films, which has been looking for a U.S. distributor -- hence the release of the eye-popping trailer, which made the rounds recently in Cannes. So far, Avi hasn't had any bites. Why not? One reason: The U.S. market for independently financed genre movies has badly eroded in the past 18 months, in part because studios want to make their own (Screen Gems), in part because marketing costs have spiraled out of control at a time when DVD revenues are no longer offsetting the expense of theatrical marketing campaigns.

Millennium is in the process of showing the film around town, but so far the reaction has been muted at best. The list of buyers is pretty short. The obvious candidates, in terms of studios that know what to do with genre films: Lionsgate, Summit, Rogue and (if they have the money) Dimension. If nothing else, the film seems destined for the Nic Cage Over the Top Acting Hall of Fame.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on September 03, 2009, 12:14:04 PM
Variety review:

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
By TODD MCCARTHY

From the moment it was announced, there was something a tad loony about the idea of remaking -- or revisiting or reinventing or whatever they want to call it -- Abel Ferrara's 1992 "Bad Lieutenant," with Werner Herzog, no less, directing. Well, lo and behold, there's also something rather loony about the finished film itself. But there's also a sort of deadpan zaniness, stemming from a steadfast conviction in its own absurdity, that gives "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" a strange distinction all its own. Not at all an art film, the picture lacks sufficient action to sate the appetites of sensation seekers, but star Nicolas Cage's name means enough to offer some short-run B.O. traction and good home-viewing market returns.

Even though the original "Bad Lieutenant" was strictly cult fare, the title does carry a certain cultural resonance. The second American film to sport the NC-17 rating, Ferrara's film was ballsy, raw and drenched in Catholic guilt and renunciation motifs, as well as loads of explicit drug taking by a New York cop spiraling toward a personal hell.

Herzog isn't into much of the above; nor is he the sort of visual stylist keen to put his own imprint on the history of film noir or the detective genre. To the contrary, New Orleans is a bright, if blighted, city, and Herzog approaches it, as well as the depredations of the title character, with a straight face and unblinking lens, the better to catch a glimpse of the links connecting Katrina, the corruption of authority as seen through the outrageous behavior of the lieutenant, and the money, which lands mostly in the wrong places.

If one watched this movie without knowing the identity of the director, it would admittedly be difficult to give it much credit, since it is so indifferently made, erratically acted and dramatically diffuse. Not in 20 years or more has Herzog exercised the sort of formal control over his dramatic features that he has over his documentaries, and for a considerable stretch, it remains unclear how one is to assess the helmer's handling of vet TV crime writer William Finkelstein's pulpy scenario. The film is offbeat, silly, disarming and loopy all at the same time, and viewers will decide to ride with that or just give up on it, according to mood and disposition.

Already on Vicodin for back pain, Cage's Lt. Terence McDonaugh pursues the case of five Senegalese illegals rubbed out in an obvious drug-world hit. The search for their supplier takes place across some of the skuzziest stretches of the Big Easy, and all signs point to an elusive operator named Big Fate (Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner).

But all along, the mystery takes a backseat to the lieutenant's increasingly erratic behavior. Hunched over due to his back problems and customarily dressed in a slightly oversized suit with a large revolver stuck straight down the front of his pants, Terence resembles nobody so much as Nosferatu, the protagonist of one of Herzog's key films 30 years ago. At one moment, Terence is shaking down upscale clubgoers for their drugs and screwing their dates in front of them, then rushing to his unlikely prostie g.f., Frankie (Eva Mendes), for a coke antidote to the heroin he's accidentally snorted. He also, as in the original film, runs up a frightening debt with reckless sports betting.

Weird little interludes see Terence taking up again with a hot-to-trot former ladyfriend (a very good Fairuza Balk), assuming responsibility for a large dog and dumping him on Frankie, and participating in some bizarre shenanigans involving alligators and iguanas photographed in extreme, handheld closeup by Herzog himself.

Whatever else one might think of Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant," it was a story about wrenching guilt driven by personal demons, and Harvey Keitel fearlessly threw himself into the title role. The new film, which was backed by the same producer, Edward R. Pressman, betrays nothing close to such levels of deep commitment by either Herzog or Cage, who mostly bide their time with riffs on the narrative until close to the end. Once Terence hits bottom -- he's totally drugged out, put on suspension at work, owes a ton to his bookie, threatened by thugs and faced with losing his girlfriend -- the film gets giddy and ends up being, of all things, a fairy tale with a wrap-up no one would expect.

If Cage was looking for a vehicle in which his hyper-emoting would be dramatically justifiable, he found one here. Sometimes he's so over the top it's funny, which one can hope was intentional. Unfortunately, there's no rapport between him and Mendes, and their physical encounters seem so tentative as to resemble rehearsals. Val Kilmer is completely wasted as a fellow cop -- it's too bad Herzog didn't bother exploring the actor's capacity for comedy -- but Joiner exhales charisma as the rising drug lord Terence might consider joining rather than beating.

An unglamorized, sun-baked New Orleans is vividly presented for what it is, warts and all, but still exudes its particular flavor. Production values are average.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on September 04, 2009, 11:28:07 AM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theshiznit.co.uk%2Fmedia%2FNews%2Fbadlieutenant-big.jpg&hash=54e96f29a6ba10768f9d8504564e71f4ca7b17ad)
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Stefen on September 04, 2009, 11:47:16 AM
Sounds like a shitty movie according to Variety, but since it's Herzog, it's allowed and watchable. Works for me.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: matt35mm on September 04, 2009, 12:03:06 PM
Hmm, it's playing right now (as in as I'm typing this) at the Venice Film Festival, which is maybe about an hour or two away from where I am right now (Bologna).  But clearly, I wasn't excited enough to go.  Plus I just found out right now.

The Road played yesterday.  Nothing that I particularly wanted to see is playing tomorrow and I leave Italy the day after that.  So no Venice Film Fest for me!
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on September 04, 2009, 01:59:56 PM
No redemption for this 'Bad Lieutenant'

VENICE, Italy - German director Werner Herzog says his "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," starring Nicolas Cage as a drug-addicted homicide detective and Eva Mendes as his prostitute girlfriend, has nothing to do with Abel Ferrara's 1992 cult classic starring Harvey Keitel. He hasn't even seen it.

"There is no relationship, because I never saw it. But I am convincingly told that they have nothing to do with each other," Herzog told reporters on Friday at the Venice Film Festival where the movie made its premiere.

"I hope that Abel Ferrara will see my film, which he has not seen. And I hope I will see his film soon. I am sure we will meet soon with a bottle of whiskey between us."

That could happen sooner than he thinks: Ferrara is showing a film "Napoli, Napoli, Napoli" out of competition in Venice.

A brutal murder of a family of illegal immigrants drives Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant," but the movie defies any conventional plot line. It's more than a murder story, and doesn't want to be an expose of corruption. Herzog said the title came with the project, and he couldn't change it, but that he did rewrite substantial parts of the screenplay.

"To me it's a fairy tale, a warped fairy tale, but a fairy tale," Mendes said.

Cage's iguana-hallucinating homicide detective Lt. Terence McDonagh walks seemingly unscathed through potential disasters of his own making, always tempting fate to catch him. He is addicted to painkillers to treat a chronic back injury picked up while rescuing a prisoner from the rising waters of Hurricane Katrina, and will do anything to get his fix: shake down colleagues working in the property room, youths coming out of clubs and a college football star whose stats he can recite.

Playing a drug haze was much a much different process for Cage than when he played an alcoholic in "Leaving Las Vegas." For that film "I would have a couple of drinks for the prescribed scene, see how it would feel and put it in the movie," he said.

"I hadn't had a drink for five years, or anything," when it came time to shoot "Bad Lieutenant," Cage said. "It occurred to me that this was going to be more of an impressionist kind of landscape where I was going to try to look at the landscape of something that happened to me 20 years ago and try to recall that in my sober mind."

For Cage, one clear underlying difference between his bad lieutenant and Keitel's is the latter's search for redemption, Cage said.

"The movie (Abel) made, which is excellent, but it is very much a Judeo-Christian program where the character is loaded with Catholic guilt and redemption. Terrence has no guilt. It is not about that," Cage said. "I did not choose to approach the film with the idea I was portraying evil in anyway. You can ask me if he is a good cop, a bad cop, I won't answer. He just is."

In one of the best lines of the film, filled with black humor, Cage tells a drug kingpin who has just shot a hit man coming to settle a score with Cage's lieutenant: "Shoot him again. His soul is still dancing." Cajun music exults as the "soul" breakdances.

"It is a very dark humor," Herzog said. "It is so dark it becomes hilarious."

Herzog acknowledges the film was initially set in New Orleans for the tax breaks, but said he immediately jumped at the chance.

"New Orleans has something very, very strange. You sense the collapse, but not just the physical collapse, also the collapse of civility," Herzog said. "We shot at one street intersection and the next night two people were shot at this intersection. So you always had the thought, yes, there are always dangers."

Cage called New Orleans "really the biggest character of the film. More so than my character, or Eva's character."

"It is a potent genus loci, which is a very spiritual kind of energy that I wanted to embrace and put in the movie," Cage said.

"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" is competing for the Golden Lion, which will be awarded Sept. 12.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: SiliasRuby on September 12, 2009, 10:19:13 PM
This was the poster the MPAA rejected.

(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aintitcool.com%2Fimages2009%2FRejectedLieutenantBig.jpg&hash=b2282fcd1db1f4ba91544bc0966fd7f4dc12020e)
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Stefen on September 12, 2009, 10:38:47 PM
haha.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Gamblour. on September 13, 2009, 09:14:58 AM
It's funny, but it's also really hideous.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: polkablues on September 13, 2009, 12:29:52 PM
It looks like Tom Goes to the Mayor.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: diggler on September 13, 2009, 07:40:18 PM
would've been better if it was just a straight photograph.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on October 08, 2009, 08:39:39 PM
Trailer here. (http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810039830/video)
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: polkablues on November 10, 2009, 01:59:24 PM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi35.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fd179%2Fpolkablues%2FBadDirector-1.jpg&hash=db4fd24faa0d685310a32f10df4ba8421f7af804)
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Stefen on November 10, 2009, 02:01:18 PM
lol. yes.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: polkablues on November 10, 2009, 02:15:01 PM
I'm going to be on vacation the rest of this week, so in the meantime if brockly wants to do some more, or if anyone else wants to try their hand at it, please do so.  Just post your results in the respective threads, and modage can add them on to the tumblr blog.  The fact that these are starting to get noticed is potentially great for this board.  If we end up getting a couple cool new members out of it, then it was totally worth it.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: modage on November 10, 2009, 02:20:14 PM
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Mr. Ratner...


http://twitter.com/BrettRatner/status/5582108865
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Neil on November 10, 2009, 02:26:53 PM
wow. polka wins!

Awesome-ness.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Gold Trumpet on November 10, 2009, 02:33:11 PM
Polka, can I use one of these posters for a facebook profile pic? I want my friends to see these and have a quick link to the website to check them out.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: polkablues on November 10, 2009, 02:34:55 PM
Absolutely, go for it.  Spread the word!
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Stefen on November 10, 2009, 02:38:08 PM
Quote from: modage on November 10, 2009, 02:20:14 PM
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Mr. Ratner...


http://twitter.com/BrettRatner/status/5582108865

Now I feel kind of bad.
Title: Re: Brothers
Post by: I Love a Magician on November 10, 2009, 02:39:38 PM
ah yeah, now we're getting to the good stuff

http://twitter.com/BrettRatner/status/5582108865
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: polkablues on November 10, 2009, 02:43:54 PM
Because you like the same thing Brett Ratner likes?
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Stefen on November 10, 2009, 02:54:23 PM
I just wish he wasn't a good sport about it.
Title: Re: Brothers
Post by: Gamblour. on November 10, 2009, 08:41:21 PM
Quote from: I Love a Magician on November 10, 2009, 02:39:38 PM
ah yeah, now we're getting to the good stuff

http://twitter.com/BrettRatner/status/5582108865

If I hadn't finished my beer, I would've spit it all over the screen! FUCK YES.
Title: Re: Brothers
Post by: socketlevel on November 10, 2009, 09:06:58 PM
dawkins is wrong, there is a god.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: squints on November 10, 2009, 09:51:26 PM
Quote from: modage on November 10, 2009, 02:20:14 PM
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Mr. Ratner...


http://twitter.com/BrettRatner/status/5582108865

that is actually pretty fuckin awesome. xixax FTW.
Title: Re: Brothers
Post by: squints on November 10, 2009, 09:54:49 PM
way to go polky. this is great.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: socketlevel on November 10, 2009, 10:11:10 PM
now's the time to make one that's really offensive and insulting to the ratner.  right when you got the attention of all his twitter minions, they'll click on the link and get treated to whatever your mind can come up with.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: brockly on November 10, 2009, 10:46:06 PM
Quote from: socketlevel on November 10, 2009, 10:11:10 PM
now's the time to make one that's really offensive and insulting to the ratner.

i considered putting 'polanski presents' (http://xixax.com/index.php?topic=8405.msg281754#msg281754) at the top of the Let Me In poster. but decided against it.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Stefen on November 11, 2009, 02:45:52 AM
haha. oh, no!
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: socketlevel on November 11, 2009, 04:55:26 AM
the more i think about it... and maybe it's my instinct to be the perpetual devil's advocate, but i gotta say considering the "Bad Lieutenant" became "Bad Director" and he still posted it on his twitter site. the dude can laugh at himself; which is pretty fucking cool. The Rat just got some socketlevel cred.

his movies and music vids still suck donkey dick, no change there.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: modage on November 11, 2009, 07:45:59 AM
we made JoBlo:

http://www.joblo.com/ratnerized-posters
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: MacGuffin on November 15, 2009, 10:39:06 AM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fmedia%2Fphoto%2F2009-11%2F50391637.jpg&hash=1397d708497eda3f974ae8cb9e146861a8952cc2)


Werner Herzog and Nicolas Cage: Partners in crime
'Bad Lieutenant's' director sped through the making of the film even as its lead actor pushed the character's boundaries.
By Chris Lee; Los Angeles Times

In "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," Nicolas Cage portrays a cop of unwavering commitment: He never lets his duty to protect and serve stand in the way of a hard-core drug binge.

As a homicide detective policing the Big Easy's toughest precincts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he snorts cocaine at crime scenes, blows marijuana smoke in the face of a suspected perp and whips out his "lucky crack pipe" to the amazement of a local drug kingpin. Amped up, antic and crackling with chemical intensity, the performance moved movie critic Roger Ebert to observe: "Cage is as good as anyone since Klaus Kinski at portraying a man whose head is exploding."

Cage's tweaker technique was so realistic, it caused the movie's director, Werner Herzog -- who worked with Kinski on five films -- to call into question what the Oscar winner was really putting up his nose.

"We had prop cocaine. Nicolas would sniff it, and I would ask him to shift positions," Herzog recently recalled. "From the moment I would ask him to move, he would be acting erratic. All of a sudden, I had the feeling: For God's sake, has he taken cocaine?"

Nursing a martini at the Polo Lounge, just days after his father, August Coppola, had passed away of a heart attack at age 75, Cage darkened at the memory of Herzog's on-set interrogation. "I would be psyching myself up, using my imagination to believe I was really blasted on coke," Cage said. "I take this little vial of saccharine-type stuff, and I would snort it and try to build that fourth wall around myself, get all agitated so I could believe I was this crazy cop who was high. And Werner would say to me, 'Nicolas, what is in that vial?' I'd be like, 'You've got to be kidding!' "

Indeed, Cage and Herzog are odd movie-making confreres. But their unique chemistry is what elevates "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" above its genre niche. Almost impossible to classify, the film is a glorious mess: part "CSI"-style police procedural, part over-the-top B-movie and part surrealist character study in flamboyant dissolution. "Bad Lieutenant" was a hit with critics at the Venice, Telluride and Toronto film festivals and boasts a 92% "freshness" rating from rottentomatoes.com.

Still, for all its sleazy, loony brilliance, doubts about the film's ability to connect with a mainstream audience linger. Online canards at one point had the movie heading straight to video. But intrepid moviegoers will be relieved to hear that "Bad Lieutenant" arrives in theaters in Los Angeles through the micro-distributor First Look on Friday.

Just don't mistake it for a remake of Abel Ferrara's 1992 "Bad Lieutenant" -- or even a "re-imagining" of that critically hailed crime drama, as the producers of "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" have termed the project. (Which arrives, not coincidentally, at a cultural moment when Hollywood has become obsessed with franchises, "pre-awareness" and branding.) As Herzog points out, the films bear little relation to each other outside their depictions of drug- and sex-crazed police rogues who flex the power of their badges in highly questionable ways.

"It's not a 're' anything," the director said. "I have not imagined or seen the other film. When I read the script, I had no idea Abel Ferrara's film existed."

Not a remake

As befits the movie's mongrel pedigree, "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" started inauspiciously. Would-be film financiers Gabe and Alan Polsky, untested in Hollywood and looking to break into the business with their first film, approached veteran independent film producer Edward Pressman about remaking a property Pressman owns, "Bad Lieutenant."

Pressman admits he was initially "dubious" but couldn't identify any downsides to giving the Polskys a chance. "I was not thinking about a sequel. I probably wouldn't have done it," Pressman said. "But I had these fellows who were willing to pay for the financing. It was a long shot."

The producers' first choice for director was Ferrara. Negotiations with him broke down, however, when the outspoken Bronx native refused to work with the screenplay written for the project by William M. Finkelstein, a journeyman television writer-producer of such series as "Law & Order," " NYPD Blue" and "Brooklyn South."

"Abel walked away from it," Pressman pointed out. "He and Harvey [Keitel, who starred in the original] had an idea for another writer, a relative of Harvey's who was not that experienced. It was a creative mix that was not working. Technically, we offered Abel the opportunity to do it first."

Gabe Polsky reset his sites on Herzog, 67, a legendary international film figure variously regarded as a mad man and a visionary.

A consummate art-house auteur ("Aguirre: The Wrath of God," "Grizzly Man," "Rescue Dawn"), the obsessive German New Wave writer-director-producer is infamous for pushing his actors -- mainly Kinski -- to blur the line between performance and psychosis. Herzog famously directed his first movie with a camera stolen from the Munich Film School and insisted on having a production crew haul a 320-ton steamship over a hill in the Peruvian jungle (resulting in injury and death) for his dramatic opus "Fitzcarraldo" (1982). But his major point of pride is to shoot movies fast and economically, frequently without official permits, claiming never to have gone over budget in his storied five-decade career.

"He had a reputation for dealing with these demented, strange, flawed characters that were extremely compelling," Gabe Polsky said. "He also has a reputation for being a renegade."

As Herzog tells it, he responded immediately to Finkelstein's script -- about a valiant cop with a bottomless appetite for drugs and sex, blackmail and high-stakes sports gambling who's pulled into a vortex of mayhem while investigating the massacre of a Senegalese immigrant family -- not realizing an earlier "Bad Lieutenant" existed. The director insisted on adding certain impressionistic aspects to the screenplay but resisted signing any contract until he knew he could secure the right person as the Bad Lieutenant.

In Herzog's mind, the only choice was Cage, not necessarily an obvious fit to anyone but the director.

After an early career punctuated by offbeat roles ("Raising Arizona," "Vampire's Kiss"), Cage ranks among Hollywood's highest-paid A-list movie stars. Despite coming off a string of middling mainstream fare ("National Treasure: Book of Secrets," " Bangkok Dangerous," "Knowing") that some industry observers dismissed as paycheck gigs, he is also one of the most debt-laden. Long one of moviedom's most profligate spenders, the actor owes the IRS $6.3 million in back taxes. According to published reports, over the years Cage bought two Bahamian islands, more than dozen houses around the world, scores of exotic sports cars as well as dinosaur skulls, meteorites and yachts (he's suing former money manager Samuel J. Levin and his firm for $20 million in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming Levin fattened his own bank account while "sending Cage down a path toward financial ruin").

Turns out Herzog had courted Cage in 1995 for a biopic about Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortés that never got off the ground. And their connection extends back further; the two had met at the winery owned by Cage's uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, when the actor was 7 or 8. "I think I might have been in the back of a car and he might have been showing me his tattoo of a skull with a top hat or something," Cage recalled.

Herzog reached Cage by phone in Australia where he was shooting the sci-fi mystery film "Knowing." And the two almost instantly reached an agreement to work together, thereby getting the project greenlighted. "We had a concordance of hearts that existed over 30 years, unbeknownst to each other," Herzog said at the memory with barely contained glee.

All of which did little to win over fans of writer-director Ferrara's 1992 "Bad Lieutenant." A gritty NC-17-rated crime drama with heavy Judeo-Christian overtones, that film follows Keitel as a corrupt New York cop with pronounced gambling, drug and sex addictions investigating the rape of a nun while navigating his own moral freefall. In the years since its limited theatrical release, the movie has turned into a bona-fide cult classic. And last year, when producer Avi Lerner announced that Cage and Herzog were planning to "remake" "Bad Lieutenant" -- a well-intentioned slip of the lip, according to the new film's producers -- many film fans simply thought it was a joke.

The excitable Ferrara, meanwhile, condemned everyone attached to the project. "I wish these people die in hell," he said at last year's Cannes Film Festival. "I hope they're all in the same streetcar and it blows up."

Rapid filming

With less than three weeks set aside for pre-production -- to establish 40 shooting locations and cast 35 speaking parts -- and no rehearsal time, the movie moved ahead at a dizzying clip. Eva Mendes, Cage's costar in the 2007 comic-book thriller "Ghost Rider," was hired as his character's love interest, a high-class call girl, and Val Kilmer was installed in the role of a fellow homicide detective. Filming took place in and around New Orleans in summer 2008, a location chosen in part because Cage owned two multimillion dollar homes there before his financial predicament forced him to put them up for sale, with Herzog seldom filming more than two takes of any scene. Moreover, he forewent what is known in movie parlance as "coverage" (shooting a performance in different ways to enable editing options). And production wrapped by 2 p.m. on most days, to allow Herzog to edit the material on site to meet another deadline: Two weeks after finishing "Bad Lieutenant," he was scheduled to direct an opera in Spain.

"I was definitely a little concerned he wasn't going to get all the shots," Alan Polsky admitted.

Nonetheless, Cage was galvanized by Herzog's speed and confidence and delighted in extensively improvising his scenes -- stone cold sober, thank you very much -- to hilarious but also often poignant effect. "Because [the character] had the chemicals to explain his behavior, I saw this as an opportunity to go to more abstract places with acting," Cage said. "I tried to design a performance that would be more extreme."

Herzog also lived up to the producers' expectation by concocting one of the movie's most memorable scenes on the fly: a long, impressionistic sequence in which Cage's character hallucinates seeing iguanas while on a stakeout of a suspected killer's home. In keeping with a motif that runs through many films in Herzog's filmography -- man and nature vying for supremacy -- the actor is framed peering quizzically at the scaly beasts from the iguanas' point of view while primal rock music blares.

The scene proved to be a breakthrough for the director, one Cage remembers as "the defining moment" of working on the movie.

Herzog's epiphany took place at a party about midway through shooting. "Werner had had a couple of drinks," Cage said. "He said in this distraught voice, 'The iguanas are the best thing in the movie. And I must have five minutes of iguana time! And if I don't have my full five minutes of iguana time, I will never make another movie again!' " (Needless to say, the iguanas stayed in the picture.)

Exhibiting what the producers and Cage describe as an alternately freewheeling and deeply disciplined directorial style, Herzog still defied all expectations when it came to the finished product.

"I edited the final cut in less than two weeks, delivered the film two days before schedule and $2.6 million under budget," Herzog crowed. "You have to know from your guts. Avi Lerner wants to marry me. But I've always worked this way."

Now, two of the movie's producers have their sights set beyond just two "Bad Lieutenant" films. "When we were putting this together, we were like, Abel and Keitel. Interesting combo," Alan Polsky said. "Then you think about Herzog and Cage. Interesting combo. Why can't we do Aronofsky and Pitt? Michel Gondry and Bill Murray? Who knows? It can go in so many directions and be a whole new franchise."

One small stumbling block in that equation being Pressman. "That idea is not as plausible to me as it is to them," the producer said. "They don't own the rights, we do."

Although Herzog petitioned the producers throughout production to shed the "Bad Lieutenant" title (in favor of calling it simply "Port of Call New Orleans"), he has made peace with his part in what Pressman calls "an interesting experiment in cinema."

"It's a sexy title," Cage said, sounding somewhat impatient. "I had it on my trailer: 'Bad Lieutenant.' We were looking at it and I said, 'You have to admit those words look pretty cool.' That's the beauty of it. The audacity of it. Ultimately, Werner likes it."

So much so, in fact, that Herzog can find unexpected joy at the notion of Ferrara wishing upon him a fiery streetcar death. "I enjoy these moments," Herzog said. "It's the same joy when I watch a baseball game. The unforgettable moment is when the manager rushes out to the umpire and yells at him from 5 inches away from his face before finally stepping back to kick sand.

"It has nothing to do with the outcome of the game. But I love baseball for those wonderful moments. In movies, you sometimes have blissful moments like this."
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: john on November 25, 2009, 04:03:54 AM
Nothing yet?

Alright...

It's late and I have to be up early so this will be incredibly truncated.

Transcendent, strange, funny, beautiful, daringly expressionistic. Removed completely from both Ferrara's original and the trappings of the genre it implicates itself to.

Vague (visual) spoiler:

There's a reveal involving Cage and an electric razor that may go down as one of the finest comedic gems in Herzog's cannon.

Sorry this is all superlatives and breathless praise. I'll revisit these thoughts later and argue/discuss them with anyone else who feels so inclined to see the film and post a response.

I fucking loved it. Smiles all around.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Stefen on November 25, 2009, 04:10:27 AM
Yay.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: modage on November 25, 2009, 08:07:31 AM
I'm going to see it to laugh at/(with?) Cages over-the-top performance but I'm not expecting/(hoping?) it will be good.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: socketlevel on November 25, 2009, 08:15:36 AM
it's fucking great man, saw it at TIFF and laughed my ass off.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: OrHowILearnedTo on November 25, 2009, 06:29:49 PM
Similar to a Coens movie in terms of tone, but very much herzog overall. LOVED IT.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: Ghostboy on November 29, 2009, 01:43:07 PM
I was expecting over-the-top batshit craziness, so I was pretty unprepared for how legitimately great this movie actually is. Cage is seriously good for the first time since Adaptation! The line about the soul still dancing....best payoff EVER. Blew my mind.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: socketlevel on November 29, 2009, 07:03:00 PM
Quote from: Ghostboy on November 29, 2009, 01:43:07 PM
I was expecting over-the-top batshit craziness, so I was pretty unprepared for how legitimately great this movie actually is. Cage is seriously good for the first time since Adaptation! The line about the soul still dancing....best payoff EVER. Blew my mind.

OMG i know, i've been holding off telling everyone i know, including this site, about that.  it's like the joke is stellar, then rests, and suddenly pays off more than you can imagine. it's too good to ruin, and explained isn't half of it, gotta see it to appreciate the genius.

at the toronto film festival, myself and a few others sitting around me lost our shit for a good 3 minutes
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: john on November 29, 2009, 08:04:15 PM
Quote from: socketlevel on November 29, 2009, 07:03:00 PM
 it's like the joke is stellar, then rests, and suddenly pays off more than you can imagine. it's too good to ruin, and explained isn't half of it, gotta see it to appreciate the genius.

Absolutely. And I'm not contending that it isn't, indeed a joke. I imaigne it certainly is. But for me, that scene existed somewhere between beauty and absurdity. It wasn't a joke in that it made me laugh, but it was an inspired, daring conclusion that made me smile well into the next scene.

Days later and the whole thing is still swirling in my head... some of the imaginary, not even including the aforementioned joke, is the finest I've seen in any film this year.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Post by: socketlevel on November 29, 2009, 08:36:46 PM
Quote from: john on November 29, 2009, 08:04:15 PM
Quote from: socketlevel on November 29, 2009, 07:03:00 PM
 it's like the joke is stellar, then rests, and suddenly pays off more than you can imagine. it's too good to ruin, and explained isn't half of it, gotta see it to appreciate the genius.

Absolutely. And I'm not contending that it isn't, indeed a joke. I imaigne it certainly is. But for me, that scene existed somewhere between beauty and absurdity. It wasn't a joke in that it made me laugh, but it was an inspired, daring conclusion that made me smile well into the next scene.

Days later and the whole thing is still swirling in my head... some of the imaginary, not even including the aforementioned joke, is the finest I've seen in any film this year.

it's funny i think you and i ended up in the same place. however for myself, it was a solid 5 mins of balls out laughing... the kind of laughing where your mind abandons all reason, and you lose your composure.  i've got three friends that can laugh this way when i really come outta left field with a joke. and watching that reaction in them, the glee they get from the absurdity, really makes me feel great. like i did something to be proud of. the thing is I don't usually feel that way myself, because i consider (pretentiously i'm sure) myself pretty out there when it comes to my humor. but in that moment, i got to feel what they felt.  it's a special kind of laughter.  i hope i didn't make it sound too cheesy, but that's the best way i can pinpoint what i mean.

after the 5 mins were up i stopped and thought to myself two things.

firstly: omg i wish i fucking made that! This usually happens with anything i see that's great. I'm sure all you wanna be film makers like myself know that feeling.

and then secondly: wow "it was an inspired, daring conclusion that made me smile..." like you so eloquently put it.

one love john, again... well put.

EDIT: also the actual shot in the reveal is genius itself, hand held wide angle pan from right to left. about 6 feet from the ground, it's like the camera and viewer are another person in the room. so that "what the fuck" factor is so underplayed... it really is brilliant.

not to mention the dialog leading up to it is pretty amazing too. the drug dealer gives me a similar gleeful feeling, i really liked his performance. it's like he senses the absurdity with the audience.

might be a top 5 scene, somewhere in cinema with the true romance scene and others like it.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: samsong on December 02, 2009, 02:46:05 PM
herzog and cage vs. the most run-of-the-mill cop movie screenplay ever written.  (see: inept) thankfully the crazies contingent wins out, though it's slow going after a good opening scene--i had my doubts.  then there's that bit with the poem and the fish and one knows it'll all be okay. deliriously poetic and hysterically facetious.  herzog's fuck-you to the poorer tendencies in american cinema is also among the year's most entertaining films.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: Ghostboy on December 02, 2009, 05:17:17 PM
Quote from: samsong on December 02, 2009, 02:46:05 PM
herzog and cage vs. the most run-of-the-mill cop movie screenplay ever written.  (see: inept) thankfully the crazies contingent wins out, though it's slow going after a good opening scene--i had my doubts.  then there's that bit with the poem and the fish and one knows it'll all be okay. deliriously poetic and hysterically facetious.  herzog's fuck-you to the poorer tendencies in american cinema is also among the year's most entertaining films.

Wait until you see My Son My Son What Have Ye Done....his fuck-you to the poorer tendencies in American media, period. In other words, it's CSI: Herzog.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: picolas on December 02, 2009, 06:18:51 PM
yyyeeeAAAAAAAAHHHHHH
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: modage on December 03, 2009, 10:08:18 PM
This movie was THE WORST.  Cage was in Vampires Kiss mode though, so it was totally watchably awful.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: RegularKarate on December 14, 2009, 02:20:53 PM
Quote from: modage on December 03, 2009, 10:08:18 PM
This movie was THE WORST.  Cage was in Vampires Kiss mode though, so it was totally watchably awful.

Are you kidding?  What did you not like about it?  The only elements of "bad movie" were entirely intentional.  It's so fucking great!

I laughed throughout the entire thing and when I wasn't laughing, I was smiling.  What a great goddamned movie!

At one point (already discussed, don't want to spoil it any further), I was stomping my foot, I was laughing so hard.

And Ghostboy, you just made me want to see MSMSWHYD so bad.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: Gamblour. on December 22, 2009, 09:25:27 AM
Til the break of dawn!

My friend and I, when we weren't laughing, spent the majority of the movie with our mouths agape. This fucking rocked us. Cage is absolutely incredible. When I think of this movie, my mind is just this swirl of images and I can't tell if they actually happened or not. So feverish. I wasn't prepared for how comedic it would be, like the entire last half hour. Or the Herzog-lizard cam. I bet if you placed this and the 'original' side by side, this would look like it was shot a decade prior, it just has that strange 70s ugliness to it. Top ten, for sure.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: polanski's illegitimate baby on January 16, 2010, 06:58:37 PM
Fuck yes to Herzog and Cage... This was definitely an uplifting film. Uplifting in a sense that it made my penis lift in hopes of seeing more films made that are not bound to any ancient moronic morality tale. Lynch can learn a bit from Herzog here, in making an honest point without giving me the feeling like i am watching someone administering enema on myself(inland empire). The scene at the very end was fucking great. Truly, a great depiction of functional nihilism/atheism...Very optimistic!
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: Pas on January 28, 2010, 06:18:41 PM
GUYS this rules!!! I am currently. Watching for the first time I am in awe! Film of the year right there. Sorry more review later am on iPhone righy now

edit: ok back home now... so few comments for this I can't believe it!! Nic Cage is bringing is A-game, Herzog has some weird shit moments scaterred around that make also help propulse this one beyond the standard 'cop movie' thing.

I read that in Cannes Herzog told reporters he had never seen the 'original' Bad Lieutenant... finding it hard to believe really, especially the scene where he fucks that girl instead of arresting her. Seems pretty similar to that classic scene of the original when Harvey Keitel tells the girls to pretend to suck him etc. Not only the theme but how it's used to show his depravation... maybe that was only in the script though come to think of it.

Anyway, awesome, awesome film. And great Nic Cage performance.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: Pozer on January 28, 2010, 06:30:06 PM
wow. some people just HAVE to post here ALL THE TIME.

sorry Paz Lieutenant
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: Pas on January 28, 2010, 06:55:10 PM
:ponder: well that was out of left field ... especially with my 1.064 post per day average. Whatever.

edit: I forgot to tell you to fuck off, sorry
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: picolas on January 28, 2010, 07:33:54 PM
*minor spoils*
pas: it totally does rule. i don't get any of the negativity towards it. the part where the kid walks through the open window then just keeps staring at cage.. and then when cage tells the old woman she's what's wrong with everything.. fuck. just a great time at the theatre.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: polanski's illegitimate baby on January 28, 2010, 07:43:25 PM
Herzog shouldve scored it with Black Flag or somthang.. This shit is punk rockxxxxxxxxersss lolzrsssss yall
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: Pas on January 28, 2010, 07:44:43 PM
fuck yes. Also, I'm starting to believe Nic Cage=Klaus Kinski

1) They go over the edge without looking back
2) They star in classics AND shitty movies
3) At 58:00 of Bad Lieutenant, Nic Cage does the fucking Kinski twist of Aguirre!!!!!! I am so proud of myself for discovering that, I think it's the first time I notice some little thing like that.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: polanski's illegitimate baby on January 28, 2010, 08:09:55 PM
Spoilers... Are you talking about the twist of the old lady's oxygen tank tube, which is so full of frustration and pretty much says "fuck you senile bitch, your old age doesn't excuse you from civil responsibilities." ?LOL
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: samsong on January 28, 2010, 08:17:19 PM
Quote from: Pas Rap on January 28, 2010, 07:44:43 PM
3) At 58:00 of Bad Lieutenant, Nic Cage does the fucking Kinski twist of Aguirre!!!!!! I am so proud of myself for discovering that, I think it's the first time I notice some little thing like that.

you didn't notice it in the first trailer?  

as far as herzog not seeing ferrara's film goes, i believe it.  the screenwriter however definitely saw it and, as several similarities between the two like the one you mentioned would suggest, was trying to write a full-on remake.  the stupidity of taking the original and turning it into a sterile procedural is an imperative to the film's success.

Quote from: picolas on January 28, 2010, 07:33:54 PM
*minor spoils*
the part where the kid walks through the open window then just keeps staring at cage.. and then when cage tells the old woman she's what's wrong with everything.. fuck. just a great time at the theatre.

spoils here as well
fucking loved those bits as well.  also his story about the sterling silver spoon and the pay-off towards the end of the film was hilarious to the point of giddiness.  the spurious climactic moment in which literally everything works out for the lieutenant coupled with the reprise of that hootin'-and-hollerin' song from the end of stroszek is one of the great movie moments of '09.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: socketlevel on January 29, 2010, 06:36:25 PM
i just finished watching BL for a 3rd time and "where the wild things are" for the 2nd time, and shit BL still has great replay value whereas wild things was a snore.

VERY MINOR SPOILER * I went on at length about a certain moment that cracked me up (and a few other posters) previously. This time the moment he's waiting for the two older women made me laugh, and not how batshit crazy he gets but the fact he's just waiting behind the door.  lol like for how long exactly? not knowing is the best part.  the deal breaker was the electiric shaver.  almost implying he's been there a while and thought he'd kill two birds with one stone and shave.  such a nice touch. 

i'mma go out on a limb and say this will stand the test of time in a fun culty way, similar to lebowski or big trouble in little china.

i love this film.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: Gamblour. on January 31, 2010, 11:36:15 AM
Haha I did not even think about the electric razor. That's great. Unfortunately, I don't think this is sticky enough to last like Lebowski or Big Trouble, but maybe it'll just be that great fucking movie you show your friends who haven't heard of it.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: socketlevel on January 31, 2010, 08:52:43 PM
true i'm fan boy gushing, only time will tell.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: Stefen on January 31, 2010, 08:59:24 PM
How are you guys seeing this? Is there a good quality screener out there? All I can find is a crappy one that's basically unwatchable.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: squints on January 31, 2010, 10:00:57 PM
i found a pretty decent one at btjunkie


this movie fucking rules.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: socketlevel on February 01, 2010, 12:29:18 AM
ya i found a 1.2 gigish one on isohunt. i've never seen people link torrents on this site so i don't wanna be the seal breaker. but if someone tells me it's copesettic then i'll direct you to it.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: Stefen on February 01, 2010, 01:00:38 AM
I got the hook up but it's always fine to link torrents and post files here. It's such a small userbase.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: 72teeth on February 01, 2010, 01:25:09 AM
Im telling
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: RegularKarate on February 01, 2010, 04:34:56 PM
Yeah, not cool to link torrents to movies.

We'll bite you.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: socketlevel on February 02, 2010, 12:34:17 AM
ah i was thinking more of a gentlemen's thing, that you would morally not want it.  fear of the po po didn't enter my mind.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: hedwig on February 02, 2010, 01:41:18 AM
yeah i'm no admin but, uh.. fuck the gentleman's code and fuck the po po.

post that link.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: squints on February 02, 2010, 05:59:17 AM
i was just saying that its out there and pretty easy to find. We don't need to post any links. Lazy asses.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: RegularKarate on February 02, 2010, 01:42:49 PM
Quote from: hedwig on February 02, 2010, 01:41:18 AM
yeah i'm no admin but, uh.. fuck the gentleman's code and fuck the po po.

post that link.

I am an admin... fuck the Hedwig... don't post that link.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: socketlevel on February 02, 2010, 02:55:40 PM
i'm not, don't worry.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: Alexandro on March 06, 2010, 04:14:53 PM
I felt frustrated with this film. Moments of absolute greatness are diluted in what seemed to me a completely uninteresting detective story. The pace was weirdly off with great sequences interchanged with some very dull ones. I was pleasently surprised by the poetic  touches, the moving dreamlike "fuck you dumb audience" bits (the ones that worked), but grew increasingly impatient with the supposed plot that no one seemed really interested in and with the dreamlike touches that felt to me, a little out of place.

too many things happen in this movie but there is a moment where it just feels like is dragging for no reason. you can sense herzog is trying to build tension around cage's character and situations, but they happen so slowly that is stays in that, a sense, but not real tension. and when he gets his break and is supposed to be funny, it is, but not THAT funny. I don't know, i hate this kind of comments on a movie but I really think this film needed to be shorter and faster. then it commits one of the great capital sins in cinema, which is that it feels like it's about to end but then it doesn't. this happens like 4 times in the last half hour and that probably added to my impatience.

yet it is a fun film where the good moments are GREAT and the bad moments are too many for me and cage is very good in it, but i don't think is this masterpiece that everyone here seems to be raving about.
Title: Re: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Post by: Lottery on May 13, 2014, 09:24:29 AM
Haha holy shit, this is one of the most curious and bizarre films I've seen recently. Uneven at times but it comes together in a puzzling and generally satisfying way. The way the conflicts built up over a relatively straightforward homicide case was done well and Nic Cage was fantastic. Surprisingly funny, I couldn't help but laugh at the oddest things in it. I just started madly giggling every now and then. Sorta surreal too.


Also, may Michael Shannon and Shea Wigham cross paths (at least have them appear in the same stuff) for as long as they live. They were great in their minor roles.