In recent years, controversial Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn has kept his work on the small screen, helming three limited series for streamers, including “Too Old to Die Young” starring Miles Teller and “Copenhagen Cowboy.” His last feature directorial effort came in 2016 with “The Neon Demon,” but Variety is now reporting that Refn is set to make his return to the big screen with an original project that is financed and set to shoot in Tokyo next year.
The news was revealed at the Venice Film Festival, where Refn is currently set to premiere his latest short, “Beauty Is Not a Sin, produced by Art + Vibes for Italian motorcycle brand MV Agusta. While there, he’ll also be screening his 1996 debut movie, “Pusher,” for Venice Classics.
“It’s a really interesting time to make movies because it’s such a chaotic situation,” Refn said to Variety of planning his Tokyo feature. “So going back and making a theatrical feature film again is almost like — not starting over — but with all the changes in our societies in the last five years and technology changes, it almost seems like the right thing to do for me.”
Despite the new pressures he’s under, Refn believes “feature film is still the mother of all mediums” and he’s excited to “re-experience that process.” While no plot details on the film have been revealed, Refn did tease that it “will have a lot of glitter and lot of sex and violence.”
Acknowledging how these features have become staples in his work, Refn said, “I think it’s hard for me to escape my self-indulgent identity in creativity. So there will always be me in it.”
In addition to his short and upcoming feature, Refn is also working on a gaming project, as he considers it the “only art form that continues to evolve with possibilities creatively.”
Adding to this statement, he said, ”In a way, had the Lumiere brothers, when they invented film, invented computer games first, what would the world look like?”
Refn’s MV Augusta short “Beauty is Not a Sin” marks the first time a commercial will have its world premiere in the official selection at the Venice Film Festival, but he doesn’t believe it’ll be the last.
“From now on, every commercial is going to try to get into Venice,” Refn said to Variety, sharing how branded work serves as an “opportunity for the future for filmmakers.”
Refn added that he sees “no difference between making an eight-minute movie and a traditional two-hour movie.” He previously directed a short for Prada called “Touch of Crude.”
