Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant cast just became a whole lot crazier. Variety is reporting that Val Kilmer and Xzibit are joining Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes in the much-maligned remake / re-imagining / re-something of Abel Ferrara's cult classic.

Kilmer will be playing Cage's police partner, presumably the straight arrow to complement Cage's cop-on-the-edge. This comes right on the heels of Kilmer being cast in Silver Cord, so I think it's safe to say someone's trying to make a comeback. (Am I the only one who laments the passing of years, and what it has done to one of my biggest crushes? Has it really been so long since The Saint?)

Xzibit, fresh off The X-Files: I Want to Believe, will be playing their nemesis, Big Fade.
Remember, folks, it's a re-imagining, which is why you don't remember any of these characters from the original.

If there aren't shockingly hilarious tales of egos and fistfights from the Lieutenant set, I'll be among the bitterly disappointed. While I suspect Kilmer has chilled with the passing of years, I'm thinking that combining him with Herzog is bound to be tempestuous. Is it too much to ask that Herzog just goes even further, and hires Sean Young and Gary Busey? Perhaps even Mike Myers? Throw the script out the window, and just film the production. I think it would be far more fun than any re-imagining.

I'm not sure what to think of this Bad Lieutenant remake (or re-imagining) since the first one was so ridiculously off the charts that when news first broke about a re-do, most folks gave a look like they just stepped on a cockroach and the thing was still squirming around all half-squashed and whatnot. Translation: "Yuck ... really? They're remaking THAT film?" Nevertheless, if anyone can make this sucker shine, it's Werner Herzog, and Variety now tells us that Eva Mendes is eying a role opposite the already-cast Nicolas Cage.

Apparently they're straying quite a bit from the original, so all we know at this point is that Cage will play a corrupt cop who likes to play dirty. In the original, Harvey Keitel starred as a corrupt cop investigating a nun's rape, though there's no word on whether that storyline will remain in this new version. If so, will Mendes play the nun (originally played by Frankie Thorn)? Mendes and Cage last worked together on Ghost Rider, which I haven't seen, so I can't comment on their chemistry. However, I've been waiting to see Mendes get a little nutty on screen since she usually plays it safe. This should be an interesting one to watch, whaddya think?

Things weren't so peaceful in the movie buff land when word got out a few weeks ago that Werner Herzog plans to remake Bad Lieutenant with Nicolas Cage in the lead role. Even noted trash auteur Abel Ferrara publicly complained about having his work redone. Bad Lieutenant isn't anybody's idea of a good time: Harvey Keitel puts on a freakishly raunchy performance. Still, it definitely sounds like Herzog's pumped about the gig. Defamer cornered the director in New York today for a few questions about the project, and the responses are kind of amazing. Herzog tends to do a great job of explaining himself, no matter what crazy scheme he has cooked up, but the best part of this interview arrives when the guy claims utter cluelessness about Ferrara's work. Way to stick it to the source material.

To hear Herzog tell it, his version of Bad Lieutenant isn't a remake, although he wouldn't know, since it sounds like hasn't actually seen the original. However, he says that Cage's character's name and the plot are entirely new. Herzog apparently liked the "very, very dark story," written by William M. Finkelstein, and he can't wait to work with Cage (given Herzog's notorious appreciation of Anna Nicole Smith, this last bit actually makes sense). Hearing about Ferrara's discontent, Herzog just eggs him on: "Let him fight the windmills, like Don Quixote." It's a feud made in heaven, almost too good to be true. You might just call it ecstatic truth.

Top: Early poster art for the new 'Bad Lieutenant,' snapped at the Cannes Film Festival last month.

When the writers' strike was looming, folks were rushing to get things done. This time around, with SAG, we've got some big-budget films trucking ahead, or scheduling re-shoots, without worry of the actors heading for the picket line. It almost feels like it's just some wild rumor. But it's not, and Variety reports that there is a pretty large "Waiverland" in case things go ahead.

SAG has set up 300 waiver deals with indie producers for post-June 30 production, should the strike go on. Now, Variety also points out that some of the big productions (like Terminator, which seemed surprisingly carefree about the possible strike), have scheduled in a hiatus just in case (hopefully long enough to cover it, should a strike begin), but others are going on the hope that there won't be one, like Angels and Demons and Prince of Persia. Risky business.

So, if you're wondering what some of the films are that got waivers, Variety shared the following: Edge of Darkness, W, My One and Only, Big Eyes, Labor Pains, Pandorum, Bad Lieutenant, Killing Pablo, and Brooklyn's Finest. Plus an earlier waiver list that included The Rebound, Law-Abiding Citizen, and Brothers in Arms.

We're in June now, so we'll know soon enough what will happen. Hopefully this can all be resolved without a big strike, but only time will tell.

I'm not sure what they're putting in the water over in Cannes, but some pretty wild deals are beginning to emerge from that fest in France. Only a day after Werner Herzog signed to direct Nicolas Cage in a remake of Bad Lieutenant comes word from The Hollywood Reporter that Herzog and David Lynch have teamed up on a film called My Son; a murder drama to be tentatively shot next March. Based on a true story, My Son will tell of a "San Diego man who acts out a Sophocles play in his mind and kills his mother with a sword." HR says the film will jump between the murder scene and this disturbed man's story. Nice family film from two completely sane directors.

Additionally, and this shouldn't come as a surprise (considering the two guys we're talking about), My Son will be shot guerrilla-style with digital video. Herzog, who co-wrote My Son with Herbert Golder, will first shoot Bad Lieutenant in July before directing the Victorian-era drama The Piano Tuner for Focus Features. One can only imagine what the finished product will look like when you've got Herzog and Lynch working together on the same movie -- especially one with a nutty storyline like this one. Not for nothing, but I think I'd rather watch the documentary of them making this film rather than the film itself. You?

It has been 15 years since the release of Abel Ferrara's controversial film, Bad Lieutenant, but the LA Times reports that Producer Edward R. Pressman is looking to update the film by using, "...the raw material of the original film and weave it into 21st century, post- 9/11 New York". The original starred Harvey Keitel as the unnamed NY policeman, a drug and gambling addict who finds redemption while investigating the rape of a nun. The film was written by actress-model Zoë Tamerlis Lund and Abel Ferrara. The producers brought in Billy Finkelstein last year to rework the script, with the working title, Bad Lieutenant '08. Finkelstein has turned in scripts for a variety of crime TV; including Law and Order and NYPD Blue. Some the changes that Pressman and company have planned for the script are the addition of a back story of the lieutenant character, as well as finally giving their lead character a name: Terence McDonough.

While the original was famous for shocking audiences with scenes of misogyny, drugs, violence, and all kinds of bad behavior, Finkelstein told the LA Times that, "I don't know that the same sorts of things that caused us to sit up and take notice 15 years ago are necessarily gonna have the same effect now." The man has a point, but it doesn't get much more disturbing than Harvey Keitel doing full-frontal nudity. Neither Keitel or Ferrara are attached to the film, but Pressman said that he has spoken to both of them about the update. So what do you think? Is Lieutenant due for an update? Or will this be just another in a long series of bad remake ideas?

[via Big Screen Little Screen]

Oh Abel Ferrara, you crazy so-and-so. How I've loved your masterful, yet often flawed, visions of the dark side in films like King of New York, The Addiction and, of course, Bad Lieutenant. I even thought your attempt at Sci-Fi with Body Snatchers was, in many ways, superior to the earlier versions. Plus, the film had that super-cute Gabrielle Anwar in it so that didn't hurt either. She's so much more pleasant to look at than Harvey Keitel's junk -- so kudos on that casting decision.

Ferarra's movies have shown me the darker side of life and through his eyes I've gained a deeper appreciation for what makes the world the way it is -- warts and all. After all this exploration of the seedy underbelly, how was I to know that for all these years, what he really wanted to do was get away from all the "darker side of life" crap and make a screwball comedy? That's something I really didn't see coming. But apparently, according to Production Weekly, its true because as of Monday, Ferrara began principal photography on the film Go Go Tales -- which is, you guessed it, a screwball comedy.

The film, which Ferrara also co-wrote with Scott Pardo, tells the story of one night at Ray Ruby's Paradise, a classy go-go club/ cabaret in Manhattan where dreamers come to dream and try to make their mark in society. It's the home of the world's most beautiful and talented strippers, who work at the club honing their skills and waiting for their shot at super-stardom. Joining Ferarra on the project as actors in the film are Willem Dafoe as club owner Ray Ruby, Bob Hoskins, Matthew Modine and the lovely and talented Asia Argento. Man, as much as I like Ferrara and respect his talent, he just doesn't quite fit as the director of a comedy. That said, I like the man's previous films, this story, and the cast -- so put it all together and it might just add up to something. Besides, Abel Ferrara and a bevy of hot strippers should at least pique your curiosity, don't you think?

The film will shoot for a month at Rome's Cinecitta Studios and then will move to New York in January.

In the nearly 15 years since Bad Lieutenant, Abel Ferrara has struggled for both critical endorsement (not that he cares) and distribution. Though 1996's The Funeral impressed some, both New Rose Hotel and 'R Xmas were tepidly received in their limited American exposure, and The Blackout didn't get a US release until four years after its 1997 Cannes premiere. His most recent effort, Mary, was booed at a Venice press screening last year (though it also won a jury prize there, so what the hell do critics know), and understandably has languished without US distribution for nearly a year. Finally, however, IFC took the plunge, and just acquired the film for North American release.

Though there's no word yet on when the movie will hit theaters, based on reviews it sounds worth watching, if only for curiosity's sake. In brief, Mary explores Ferrara's obsession with faith and redemption in his own distinctive way, focusing on a Passion of the Christ-esque film (directed by Matthew Modine, apparently channeling Ferrara) and "a weeklong, primetime nightly network TV special examining the historical truth about Jesus." As an added bonus, the host of the show is played by the great Forest Whitaker who is reportedly fantastic, even when the movie takes a turn for the worse.