Herzog's BAD LIEUTENANT is not a remake!

By Matt Holmes /

Comparing his upcoming police thriller Bad Lieutenant with the Bond series, master director Werner Herzog tells Coming Soon that fans of the original Harvey Keitel movie of the same name need not worry. It's not Herzog's intention to rape the original, as his movie is not in fact a remake - as like the 007 films, it will just have character traits from the previous film and won't be exactly the same.

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"No, it's not a remake," he told us quite adamantly. "You have to delete that from your memory, though we may not be able to delete it from public perception. It's like I keep saying, 'A James Bond film, the newest one, is not a remake of the previous one; it's a completely different story.' It only has a corrupt policeman as the central character and that's about it."
He goes to on to say that he was handpicked for the film by Nicolas Cage and was flattered when the actor came to him with the project. Production is expected to begin soon on the project. Ok so it's not a remake... then my question is why take the name of the original movie? Why not call it something different and just homage it if it's completely different? As far as I'm concerned unless the material is based on a book of the same name (which this isn't) then you are adapting and remaking the original film. No excuses Mr. Herzog.