Cantankerous and scabrous Bronx-born filmmaker Abel Ferrara just cannot let the whole “Bad Lieutenant” remake thing go.
When Werner Herzog’s remake/reboot/ re-imagining was announced earlier this year, Ferrara lost his shit (eventually got into a war of words with the German filmmaker) and hinted that in some way shape or form he’d put the kibosh on the project (or at least there would be some reason why it wouldn’t go forward).
That never happened and the picture shot this summer.
You’d think after that, Ferrara would just walk away, but in a recent interview with Filmmaker magazine, the “King of New York” director was pretty much still fuming about Herzog deigning to re-direct his ’90s sleaze classic.
“[Herzog] 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.”
Ferrara says the filmmakers are creating the film against his will.
“Nobody asked us to do it. Nobody approached us and said, ‘Would you do it?’ Give us $8 million, we’ll come up with something. They give me twenty grand and say, ‘Go fuck yourself.’ Gimme a break! They aren’t paying Harvey anything, they aren’t paying him two cents. Ed Pressman [one of the producers] sucks cock in hell, period. You can print that.”
If nothing else, Ferrara is at least entertaining.