If you need an indication that the colorful A-list cast of Nicolas Winding Refn‘s hotly-tipped genre noir “Drive” got on with the Danish filmmaker like a house on fire, look no further than Refn’s next few projects for proof. Shooting next, the Bangkok-set neo-Western “Only God Forgives” will also star lead “Drive” actor Ryan Gosling (alongside Kristin Scott Thomas), the “Half Nelson” actor is also developing a “Logan’s Run” remake with Refn, and there’s even been talk of a romantic comedy for the duo that would be written by “Drive” heavy Albert Brooks.
Add one more to the pile. At a ceremony on Saturday that took place at the Deauville Film Festival in France where Refn was accepting an award for Ryan Gosling, the director said he’s found the lead to his gestating sex thriller, “I Walk With the Dead,” the female lead of “Drive,” Carey Mulligan.
Details of “I Walk With the Dead” are scarce. Refn first revealed the existence of the project in an interview with The Playlist in 2009 while doing the press rounds for his meditative Viking epic, “Valhalla Rising.”
And apparently the film already has its financing from French investors. “I’ve always wanted to make a movie with lots of sex,” he told us at the time. “So I wrote this story called, ‘I Walk With the Dead’ and it takes place in Miami and it’s just going to have a lot of sex in it. I have two films that are getting made with French investors and one is ‘Only God Forgives’ and one is ‘I Walk With the Dead.’ ”
During the same conversation, the filmmaker, who made a splash in the U.S. in 2008 with his stylish prison film “Bronson,” revealed that he was also set with Channing Tatum to star alongside Harrison Ford in the Paul Schrader-penned project, “The Dying of the Light,” but the deals fell apart “over a weekend” a few months earlier.
At the time, Refn indicated to us that placing “Drive” at the head of his queue suddenly didn’t change anything as funding was in place so he could make the two films whenever he saw fit. Now with the addition of Mulligan as his female lead in “I Walk With the Dead,” we imagine he’s beginning to take the first steps in making this picture a reality. More details as we get them. [THR]
