Hell hath no fury like Abel Ferrara underpaid for his intellectual property. In an lengthy interview with Nick Dawson for the FILMMAKER Blog (pegged to the long-awaited US first run of Ferrara’s 2005 film Mary, which starts at Anthology Film Archives on Friday), the filmmaker has more complaints about the Nicolas Cage-starring, Werner Herzog-directed remake of Bad Lieutenant. The big problem seems to be that rather than offer Ferrara and his crew a big (or, biggish), Ed Pressman and the producers of the remake simply paid Ferrara “twenty grand” and shut him out. My favorite quotes from the interview, taken out of context:
“I can’t believe Nic Cage is trying to play that part. I mean, if the kid needed the money… It’s like Harvey Keitel said, “If the guy needed the money, if he came to us and said, ‘My career’s on the rocks,’ I’d cut him a break.”
“I’m not doing the prequel to Aguirre: the Wrath of God, OK? Let me put it that way.”
“Give us $8 million, we’ll come up with something. They give me twenty grand and say, “Go **** yourself.” Gimme a break!”
“Ed Pressman sucks **** in hell, period. You can print that.”
There’s much, much more here.
Originally posted on:
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