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Eva Mendes Joins Bad Lieutenant - Herzog Says It's Not a Remake

by Kevin Powers
June 16, 2008
Source: Hollywood Elsewhere

We previously brought you the news that seasoned German filmmaker Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, Rescue Dawn) would be remaking the debaucherous 1992 flick Bad Lieutenant, with Nic Cage stepping in for Harvey Keitel's original role. As it turns out, Herzog's film will not be a straight-up remake and will be titled Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans instead. Eva Mendes will star, as well, as a character not yet defined. Given the sultry actress' prior roles (like in We Own the Night), one can probably guess the supporting role she'll play - a hot, hanger-on that is at some point victimized (physically or emotionally) by Cage. Herzog himself also chimes in with what we can expect of this Bad Lieutenant.

Herzog told Hollywood Elsewhere that the film "is a completely different story in the same sense as the last James Bond is not a remake of the previous one." I suppose that means that Herzog will still have Cage playing the nameless character - he just goes by "Lieutenant" - but with a totally new storyline. That might make sense, but one has to wonder how much of the source material Herzog will draw from. Bad Lieutenant was originally rated NC-17 due to the gratuitous violence, sex and drug use, for which Keitel was the perfect abuser. Cage will never be as gritty as Keitel, and Herzog seems an unlikely candidate for such dank material. However, the original does have an undercurrent of redemption and Catholicism - a level of complexity which does feel worthy of Herzog.

So what direction might Herzog take the project and how closely will it follow the original? Herzog illuminates things a bit by saying, "There's an interesting screenplay, [and] it's a very, very dark story. It's great because it seems to reflect a side of the collective psyche -- sometimes there are just good times for film noir." Sadly, as with the recently announced Knowing, I feel Cage's projects are destined to only go so deep. Perhaps Herzog can draw a compelling performance out of the 44-year-old washed out actor. Although, if Cage and Mendes' chemistry is anything like it was in the awful Ghost Rider, we're definitely in trouble. Will this Ghost Rider duo damage Herzog's career?

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Saif

If only Nicolas cage would fix his hair. I'd start watching his movies again. What happened to the Lord of War hair Nicolas?
http://www.theaterhopper.com Tom Brazelton

The real Nicolas Cage has no hair. It's been one awful wig choice after another.
http://www.thestopbutton.com Andrew Wickliffe

Will this ruin Herzog's legacy? I mean, Cage has gone from Oscar-winner to blockbuster boy to joke. Mendes couldn't act in a Mentos commercial.
Charlie

I'm confused by this article. You seem unsteady at the idea of a Bad Lieutenant remake but I get the sense of even greater unease if the film is not faithful to the original. You say Herzog is "an unlikely candidate for such dank material." Do you mean to use the word "dark" or is the material leaky. If you meant dark, than you are mistaken, dare I say incredibly wrong about Werner Herzog. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the director's previous films outside of Grizzly Man and Rescue Dawn which you mentioned above, but he has made a career for the last 40 years out of being an uncompromising man who has explored the darker nature of human nature. Watch "Heart of Glass", "Stroszek", Aguirre: The Wrath of God" or most any other film he has made. He may not handle dark material with brooding music and harsh lighting, but the quiet contemplation and the decision to not shield the audience from life's troubles is mesmerizing. You'll have to ask yourself why more people don't make dark films like Herzog.
kitano0

I just don't think Eva is all that...never have. Nice body, sure, but far from the total package. IMHO
http://www.modelmayhem.com/kevjohnphotography kevjohn

I remember seing the first Bad Lt., but I don't remember much about it other than Keitel's cop character using a lot of drugs and being totally out of control. I also remember it not being a very good movie at all. But the main thing I remember is his full frontal nudity, which after Life of Brian, was one of the first times I'd ever seen a man nude in a film. All I'm asking for, BEGGING for, is that if there's going to be full frontal nudity in this version, please let it be Eva Mendes instead of Nicolas Cage!!
Peluco

"Stroszek" was only made to please an actor who didn't become the role for "Wojzeck"! It was more or less a present which they shooted with film-material rests.
Firehalo

F**K YOU Herzog and Cage... come up with a different name for your project instead of piggybacking off a true CINEMA CLASSIC... not some multi-plex bullsh*t piece of tripe that this MOVIE promises to be. This garbage will flop like a carp out of water... and it will be forgotten like an alzheimer patient's birthday. It is just too bad that Herzog is attempting to sustain his waning career with a stunt like this... I have lost soooooooo much respect for him. Cage, he is a desperate, talentless, LUCKY-A$$ relative of a class-act director. If his uncle wasn't FFC, Cage would be a car salesman in Riverside. What a joke! No actor (Cage, Kilmer, Mendes) with any self-respect would touch this project with a 10-foot pole. Just get this sh*t over with, so we can bury it with the rest of Cage's trash pile popcorn-pushing-crap.
Steve

Mendes can "show me how to suck a c*#k!"
njao

Nic Cage will do the part justice!! im sure of it! and what Andrew said about nic being a joke... that couldnt be more from the truth... just because nic is doing movies he likes instead of what he knows will do good in the cinemas isnt making him a joke its making him the total opposite...