Director Werner Herzog and Actor Nicolas Cage are currently in preproduction on a project based on the Abel Ferrara film, “Bad Lieutenant”. According to an interview with Herzog by Defamer, the new movie will not be a remake, per se, of the unforgettable 1992 original which starred Harvey Keitel as a crooked, corrupt, drug addicted, degenerate gambler New York City Police Department Lieutenant who chooses to bet against the Mets at the wrong time. Rather, Herzog explained, he and Cage will do a continuation of the character.   At least that’s what I think he said:

“Yes, but its not a remake. It’s like, for example, you wouldn’t call a new James Bond movie a remake of the previous one - although the name of the bad lieutenant is a different one, and the story is completely different.”

In another departure from Ferrara’s version, the new film will be set and shot in New Orleans, a decision Herzog says producer Edward R. Pressman - who also produced the original - made because of tax incentives, but that intrigues the director nonetheless. “…I thought to myself: “We have seen a lot of New York in movies; we have not seen New Orleans in feature films.” Or very few feature films. After Katrina it’s a particularly interesting set-up. The neglect and politics after the hurricane struck are something quite amazing. It has to do with public morality.” he explained.

However all these differences don’t seem to matter much to Abel Ferrara, who upon hearing the news that Herzog, Cage and Pressman would be touching his opus vowed to fight the project and was quoted as saying, “…I wish these people die in Hell. I hope they’re all in the same streetcar, and it blows up.”

Herzog seemed to take his fellow director’s protestations on the chin in the Defamer interview:

“Q: Speaking of which, the original film’s director, Abel Ferrara, has vowed to fight this project, and -

A: Wonderful, yes! Let him fight! He thinks I’m doing a remake.

Q: Have you talked to him?

A: No. I have no idea who Abel Ferrara is. But let him fight the windmills, like Don Quixote.

Q: Have you heard his comments at all? He says he hopes “these people die in Hell.”

A: That’s beautiful!”

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LINKS:
Defamer: Defiant Werner Herzog to Defamer: “Who is Abel Ferrara?”

Variety: Nic Cage to Star in “Bad Lieutenant”

The Moviezzz Blog: “Bad Lieutenant”: A Werner Herzog Film??