Having learned that anything he says could potentially be a headline, Nicolas Winding Refn has become cagier about whatever prospective project he has brewing. And thus, it’s no surprise then that, badass title aside, details on “I Walk With The Dead” have been fairly scarce. At one point, it was described as a movie with “lots of sex” and with Carey Mulligan attached, and Miami as the setting for the movie. Earlier this year, he confirmed with us that Mulligan was still attached, but that he was still working on the script. And now, it turns out he’s brought in someone to help him out.
The London Evening Standard reveals that playwright Polly Stenham has been enlisted to write the script for the movie, which is now being called an “all-female horror.” And it seems with this film, Refn wants to counter some of the criticism he’s received along the way. “He’s got a lot of stick for doing films some people think are violently misogynistic,” Stenham said. “So he approached me with the idea of doing something different.”
The writer also added, when asked whether it’ll be more cerebral or viscerally violent, that “It’s going to have a bit of everything.” But when will we actually see this? It seems that it’s still a bit of way off if a script is still being together.
But, as usual, Refn has a few fires cooking including the Tokyo-set “The Avenging Silence” and the sci-fi series “Barbarella,” both of which he addresses in our most recent chat with him.
Refn will already have to comparatively compete with The Descent, to those who are unable to criticize a film on its own merits.
Misogynistic?
As one of those people who finds his films misogynistic, I think this is a more promising step, and it would certainly interest me more than his other work. Given that it's apparently a horror film, it'll probably have plenty of dead women or violence against women, though, and with his track record, I remain a little skeptical that he could pull it off, but seeing as he's getting a female writer, perhaps it could work. Anything with an all or majority lady cast has my attention.