Takashi Miike — the prolific Japanese auteur best known for turning guts and grime into high art in films like Audition and 13 Assassins — is about to crank the dial to eleven. According to Deadline, Miike will direct Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, a new reimagining of the notorious crime saga that once melted minds under the helm of Abel Ferrara and later Werner Herzog. And if those two previous versions were cinematic fever dreams, Miike’s take might be a full-blown hallucination.
Set to begin production this May, the film will star Japanese A-lister Shun Oguri (Godzilla vs. Kong, Crows Zero), British chameleon Lily James (Pam & Tommy, Yesterday), and—yes—WWE superstar Liv Morgan, making the leap from top-rope villainy to neo-noir mystery. The movie will be a U.S.–Japan co-production, backed by Neon (the indie juggernaut behind Oscar-sweeper Anora), with producing duties shared between Jeremy Thomas for Recorded Picture Company, Sam Pressman for Pressman Film, and Japanese partners Nippon TV and OLM.
The premise, penned by Audition and 13 Assassins screenwriter Daisuke Tengan, is just as delirious as you’d hope: Oguri plays the “Bad Lieutenant,” a morally bankrupt Tokyo cop with a gambling problem, who’s dragged into a spiraling case involving a missing politician’s daughter (Morgan) and a shadowy FBI agent (James) who may be the only one more unhinged than he is. Oh, and there’s a deranged yakuza killer stalking them from the shadows. Classic Miike.
“A team of incredibly talented actors and crew has gathered in Tokyo. Now. I’m about to throw a fastball straight down the middle of your strike zone – no tricks, no gimmicks,” Miike said in a statement that sounds less like a press quote and more like a line from the movie itself. “Get ready for the ride with us.”
Miike, known for his genre-hopping anarchy and unrelenting pace (he’s directed over 100 films), is uniquely suited to take on this IP. And according to Sam Pressman — whose father, the late Edward R. Pressman, produced the original Bad Lieutenant — Miike is not here to imitate.
“Director Miike brings a fearless new vision to the Bad Lieutenant, a character defined by the auteur,” he said. “Just as Ferrara and Herzog delivered films as radically different as their own voices, Miike’s adaptation is unrelentingly wild and unique.”
The film marks yet another high-profile move for Neon, which is heading into Cannes on a hot streak, having dominated awards season with Anora. In addition to Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, the company is also bringing Sentimental Value from Joachim Trier, Alpha from Julia Ducournau, Orwell from Raoul Peck, and Splitsville from Michael Angelo Covino to the Croisette.
With Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, Miike joins a shortlist of directors — Ferrara, Herzog — who have dared to reshape a character this toxic, this spiritually bankrupt, this… cinematic. But in Miike’s world, depravity doesn’t need a badge. It just needs an excuse to erupt.
Will Lily James go full FBI femme fatale? Will Liv Morgan add a neon-drenched body slam to Miike’s ultraviolent arsenal? And will Shun Oguri manage to out-weird Harvey Keitel and Nicolas Cage?
If anyone can orchestrate that trifecta, it’s Miike. Shun Oguri manage to out-weird Harvey Keitel and Nicolas Cage? If anyone can orchestrate that trifecta, it’s Miike.
Login
0 Comments