Unfair: The Movie Unfair: The Movie
Aug
29
2007

Bad Lieutenant Remake

Posted by Kurt Halfyard at 10:37am.

Posted in Film News , Drama, USA & Canada.

Here is a strange one on the remake front.  Bad Lieutenant is pretty much note perfect, more of less of its time and place, (not to mention a hard NC-17 rating) and has a truly iconic performance from Harvey Keitel (baring both soul and well, you know).  Why would you (Mr. Edward Pressman) want to remake this again?  Nonetheless, things seem to be going forward with a screenwriter (TV police procedural writer William Finkelstein) and apparently without Abel Ferrara‘s or Harvey Keitel‘s involvement whatsoever. 

The new version—with a working title of “Bad Lieutenant ‘08”—is less a sequel or a prequel than an attempt to take the raw material of the original film and weave it into 21st century, post- 9/11 New York. ... Finkelstein provides the Lieutenant with a small amount of addiction back story, the event that prompts his promotion from sergeant and the drug-related murder of five Senegalese illegal immigrants to pursue.

While there is some curiosity as to why 9/11 material/themes has to be integrated into this particular story, I will not be placing any sports bets on this one.

[Source:  L.A. Times via Filmstalker]

  • Digg This
  • Stumble It!
  • Reddit
 

Reader Comments

  1. Chris 08/29/2007 @ 3:38pm

    To this I say: “ooooh oooooooooooh ooo-ooooo-ooooooooh oooooooooooooh” (repeat for five minutes).

  2. Kurt Halfyard 08/29/2007 @ 4:47pm

    You don’t know how hard it was to resist posting that in the body of the post!  (it was even typed at one point, but deleted).  Good to know others are on the same wavelength!

  3. Marcio 08/30/2007 @ 2:26am

    worst ideia ever!

  4. Travis Crawford 08/30/2007 @ 9:34am

    That has to be one of the strangest—and unfortunately, I don’t mean that in a good way—ideas for a remake I’ve ever encountered.  I like Ed Pressman (I interviewed him once for Fangoria), and I thought that the recent remake of SISTERS (he produced both the original and the new version) turned out to be a pretty interesting film, but as far as BAD LIEUTENANT goes...WTF?  I felt the same way when I heard they were remaking TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE:  it’s not like the storyline and raw material is all that compelling in and of itself, it was just about the brilliance of the original execution—in this case, the intensity that Ferrara and Keitel brought to the character.  And it’s not like the original was some huge commercial hit that they could be capitalizing on either.  Weird.  I plan on listening to Schooly D albums all day in protest.  Wake me when Michael Bay announces his remake of NEW ROSE HOTEL.

  5. Chris 08/30/2007 @ 12:53pm

    LOL. Awesome, Kurt. After seeing Bad Lieutenant my wife and I haven’t been able to watch Harvey Keitel without cracking up. :D

Post Your Comments

You must be a registered member to post comments.

If you have a Twitch account, click here to sign in.

If you don't have a Twitch account, click here to register. Don't worry, it's free!

Launch The Twitch Video Player

Stuff We Like

Shop at our affiliated sites and support Twitch while feeding your pop-culture addiction.

Our Latest Film & DVD Reviews

More Film & DVD Reviews...

Our Latest Interviews

More Interviews...

Recent Contests & Featured Content

Recent Comments