The answer to that second question, don’t get your hopes up is probably not.
But read on. Would-be financiers Gabe and Alan Polsky are the young duo that got the “Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call” remake off the ground. They were recently listed in Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch feature.
They basically wanted an “in” with Hollywood and convinced independent film producer Edward Pressman, who owns the rights to the series to do a remake/reboot which eventually turned into Werner Herzog’s “reimagining” of the ‘Bad Lieutnant’ story — a very different take on the drugged-up police officer out of control.
But it turns out the Polsky’s wanted Abel Ferrara and Harvey Keitel for the reboot as well — presumably then a sequel? According to the L.A. Times who profiled the Polsky’s this weekend. This was the original plan.
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.”
Obviously that never worked out which is probably why Ferrara wanted them to all die on a bus full of explosives (or whatever hex he tried to curse on them originally) and when Herzog got the gig he actually wanted to cast Ferrara in cameo role (never happened; bad blood still exists).
The brothers would like to make a franchise out of ‘Bad Lieutenant’ teaming up famous directors and actors in different settings. “Then you think about Herzog and Cage. Interesting combo. Why can’t we do Aronofsky and [Brad] Pitt? Michel Gondry and Bill Murray? Who knows? It can go in so many directions and be a whole new franchise,” they said hypothetically.
But Edward Pressman is not so convinced future sequels for this franchise are a possibility. He doesn’t sound completely jazzed about Herzog’s version and diplomatically calls it, “an interesting experiment in cinema” (he probably knows even under budget, this movie is not likely going to make a killing).
In fact, Pressman sounds pretty cynical about further ‘Bad’ installments. “That idea is not as plausible to me as it is to them. They don’t own the rights, we do,” he added with emphasis.
The article also reveals that Herzog and Cage, somewhat of kindred spirits almost worked together in 1995 when the director tried to court the actor for a biopic about Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortés — who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec empire — that never got off the ground.
Maybe they could eventually revive that project? Though the material sounds perfect for Herzog is does sound very “Aguirre: The Wrath Of God” which is ground he’s obviously already covered.
