Casting Couch: Simpsons Gets Guests, Imperioli Gets Life; Kilmer Gets Bad
With the Fourth rapidly approaching, it’s a relatively slow time for Hollywood dealmakers, but there is a little action on the Couch.
Homer Simpson is ’tooning in Denis Leary, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and some Internet gazillionaires, Michael Imperioli is trading the Bada Bing for bell bottoms, and Val Kilmer is playing good cop to Nic Cage’s Bad Lieutenant.
Louis-Dreyfus will reprise her role as Snake’s girlfriend in The Simpsons’ season kickoff on Sept. 28, while Leary will take a break from Rescue Me to play a tantrum-prone version of himself whose cell phone winds up in Bart’s hands.
Also getting their yellow on this season: Dallas Mavericks boss and former Dancing With the Stars hoofer Mark Cuban and Amazon.com overlord Jeff Bezos. They’ll give Mr. Burns a run for his money, lending their singing voices to a December episode in which Monty wins a pro basketball team in a poker game.
As for Imperioli, the Emmy-winning former Sopranos star has signed on to star in ABC’s new ’70s-themed drama Life on Mars.
The series revolves around a police detective (Jason O’Mara) who, after a car crash, mysteriously is transported back in time to 1973, where he must track down a serial killer.
Imperioli will be on the right side of the law this time around as Tyler’s rough-and-tumble partner.
Mars has recently gone through a behind-the-scenes transformation after the exit of original showrunner David E. Kelly. He’s been replaced by Stephen Garrett, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg, the braintrust behind ABC’s October Road, which didn’t get a renewal for a third season.
Life on Mars is scheduled to air Thursdays at 10 p.m. this fall in the post-Grey’s Anatomy slot.
Finally, Kilmer and rapper Xzibit are set to costar with Cage and Eva Mendes in director Werner Herzog’s reworking of Abel Ferrara’s 1992 cult classic, The Bad Lieutenant.
The updated film will follow a corrupt cop (Cage) who seeks out redemption as he investigates the rape of a nun.
Kilmer will play Cage’s partner; Xzibit will play a crime kingpin.
Also on board Lieutenant are Fairuza Balk, Jennifer Coolidge, Vondie Curtis Hall, Shawn Hatosy, Denzel Whitaker and Brad Dourif.
Shooting starts later this summer.
Eva Mendes Ready to Go Bad?
Eva Mendes is ready to be a Bad girl.
The actress is in talks to reunite with her Ghost Rider partner Nicolas Cage for Werner Herzog’s update of Abel Ferrara’s 1992 pulp classic, The Bad Lieutenant, Variety reports.
Little is known about the 34-year-old beauty’s role, but it should be a far cry from her and Cage’s family-friendly comic-book collaboration. If this Lieutenant is anything like its predecessor, expect plenty of skin, not to mention a heaping helping of profanity.
The original Bad Lieutenant starred Harvey Keitel as a corrupt New York detective with a penchant for gambling, drugs and sex, who decides to seek out redemption while investigating a nun’s rape.
Mendes next hits theaters in September, costarring with Meg Ryan and Annette Bening in a remake of George Cuckor’s The Women. That will be followed by another comic-based flick, Frank Miller’s The Spirit, due out at the end of the year.
Shooting on The Bad Lieutenant kicks off in late summer.
Geezer Warz: Werner Herzog and Abel Ferrara Fight Over Bad Lieutenant
“Do we not have a bell?”
Too bad John McCain’s not a grizzled, old indie director. Zing. Wild and crazy guys, Werner Herzog (above) and Abel Ferrara (right), are exchanging heated words and grumpy disses in regard to Herzog’s 2009 remake of Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant, with Nic Cage starring in the role once inhabited by Harvey Keitel. Whaaa happen? Well, Ferrara drew verbal first blood at Cannes by dreaming up a deranged hypothetical befitting a Slashfilm commenter’s luv for Brett Ratner…
“I wish these [Herzog and remake people] die in Hell. I hope they’re all in the same streetcar, and it blows up,” Ferrara told Spout.
As Ferrara said this, the hair in Don King’s ear twitched oh so slightly across the pond. This week Herzog responded to Ferrara’s fiery remarks with a “Who’s that?” battle strategy utilized by so many rap artists.
“Defamer: Have you talked to [Ferrara]?
Herzog: No. I have no idea who Abel Ferrara is. But let him fight the windmills, like Don Quixote. …I’ve never seen a film by him. I have no idea who he is. Is he Italian? Is he French? Who is he? …Maybe I could invite him to act in a movie! Except I don’t know what he looks like.”
Is “let him fight the windmills” the new “Nuke the Fridge”? Herzog also cops to not having viewed or even knowing much about the original film. In the past, Slashfilm and many of our readers have asked why this remake is needed. And it’s not the usual case of an exhausted, “Why Hollywood Whyyyy?!?” per se. Without question, Herzog is a talented guy (Grizzly Man, Rescue Dawn, Aguirre), but how would he feel if someone remade one of his more personal films like Fitzcarraldo without bothering to see it or check in with him? Bad Lieutenant is Ferrara’s signature film (alongside his awesome The King of New York); it just seems uncouth. But here is what drew Herzog to the material…
“There’s an interesting screenplay; it’s a very, very dark story. It’s great because it seems to reflect a side of the collective psyche — sometimes there are just good times for film noir. …We have seen a lot of New York in movies; we have not seen New Orleans in feature films. Or very few feature films. After Katrina it’s a particularly interesting set-up. The neglect and politics after the hurricane struck are something quite amazing. It has to do with public morality.”
Switching the setting from the Rotten Apple to the Big Easy is intriguing to say the least, but that gives him even less reason to use the title; Ferrara’s is a cult classic, certainly, but the NC-17 flick’s name recognition amongst the mainstream is slight. Moreover, the title character’s name is different in the remake. The lone major link between the films is producer Edward R. Pressman. Who do you side with here? Herzog compares his film to a new actor taking over James Bond, but that doesn’t cut the mustard. I side with Ferrara, unless he goes through with real indie terrorism. Good exposure for all.
Cage: Who’s Bad?
Nicolas Cage is headed to the dark side.
The City of Angels star is set to headline a remake of Abel Ferrara's 1992's pulp classic Bad Lieutenant, which will be helmed by famed German auteur Werner Herzog.
Per Variety, the 44-year-old Cage will slink into the role originated by Harvey Keitel, an NYPD detective who investigates the rape of a young nun all the while seeking forgiveness for a litany of his own sins, including heavy drug use, gambling and cavorting with prostitutes.
The original Lieutenant, directed by Ferrara from a screenplay he cowrote with Zoë Lund, was slapped with an NC-17 rating for its explicit language and hard-core sex scenes, like the one in which Keitel's lapsed Catholic copper masturbates in front of a teenage girl. The redo was written by Billy Finkelstein, a vet of small-screen police dramas like NYPD Blue and Law & Order.
Cage is currently in Australia shooting the time-capsule thriller Knowing with Rose Byrne. Cameras roll on Bad Lieutenant this summer.