Intellectual property is a tricky thing in Hollywood. It’s really all the studios want to make, whether it’s an adaptation of a well-known video game, a remake, a comic book property, a popular, best-selling book or some form of branded entertainment. I.P. drives Hollywood and informs nearly all of its decisions. But as 2016 has shown, I.P. isn’t performing well, at least in the U.S. See: “Warcraft,”“Independence Day: Resurgence,” “Alice In Wonderland: Through The Looking Glass,” “Snow White And The Huntsman,” “X-Men: Apocalypse” and most likely this weekend, “Tarzan.”
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But while some filmmakers flirt with I.P., director Nicolas Winding Refn being one of them, not all directors stick it through. In fact, in a recent Happy Sad Podcast, promoting the “Neon Demon,” the filmmaker suggested his TV remake of “Barbarella” is no longer happening.
“Well, I don’t own ‘Barbarella,’ the estate does, but I decided to be more interested in the ‘Neon Demon,’” Refn said, suggesting he’s moved on. “Plus there are other television things that caught my attention [because] I actually enjoy designing it from the beginning. It became…’Barbarella,’ it was like ‘Logan’s Run’: certain things are better left untouched. You don’t need to remake everything.”
OK, that’s not a definitive no, but it sounds like Refn would rather create original material over remakes. That said, while the “Drive” director says he loves Hollywood and big budgeted movies (“I love Michael Bay, he’s very inspiring filmmaker. I basically watch all his movies.”), it’s the compromise that goes along with I.P. that ultimately turns him off. “I’m much more interested in the creative high and no money can outweigh [the lack of] creative control. It just does not match.”
That said, he took a lot of meetings in the past. There were rumors at one point that Refn was interested in making a James Bond movie. And the Danish director admitted he’d met with the core team once. “I had some wonder meeting with [The Bond producers] the Broccolis and Daniel Craig. And I very much liked them and I’m a huge James Bond fan.” But obviously never came of those discussions.
While he laughed at the suggestion that he got any closer to making “Wonder Woman” and that Warner Bros. wouldn’t let him near the project (“Are you kidding?”), he did admit he had a “very early conversation” about the project but said, “I would only do it with Christina Hendricks,” and the conversation never went further.
Refn also talked about his good buddy/Danish rival Lars Von Trier, and while he threw less shade (“I think he’s a wonderful force of creativity”) he was still mad that Trier (allegedly) hit on his spouse (“It doesn’t change the fact that he tried to get in the pants of my wife which is not particularly groovy when you’re a raging drug addict.”)
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That’s really just scratching the surface of a great conversation, so dive in and listen to the whole thing below. “The Neon Demon” is in theaters now.