With “Only God Forgives” screening this morning at Cannes (read our review), it’s clearly Nicolas Winding Refn day here at The Playlist. In the shadow of the success of the new film’s predecessor, 2011’s “Drive,” one of the more surprising moves the director made was signing up for an adaptation of the TV show “The Equalizer” with Denzel Washington set to star, before just as suddenly bailing on the project. While no specific reason was given for his exit at the time — Sony was unable to close the deal with Refn — the director has hinted at the reason for his departure.
In an interview with the LA Times,
Refn said that he’d “rather make a good movie that breaks even than a
bad movie that makes money.” Coyly, Refn elaborated “Let’s put it like
this: There’s a reason why I pulled out.” Yikes. And it doesn’t look
like the studio has gotten the hint with Rupert Wyatt similarly joining and promptly exiting the project in under a month total. Script problems? An interfering star? Who knows?
With Antoine Fuqua now at the helm and already casting,
what are the odds that he’s able to avoid the same pitfalls that scared
his two predecessors away? Considering this would be his follow-up to “Olympus Has Fallen,” we don’t have high hopes. Meanwhile, off the back of this morning’s screening and press conference, a new clip’s arrived from “Only God Forgives” over at Crave. It’s actually an extended version of a scene we’ve already seen a glimpse of, in which Kristin Scott Thomas (who seems to be the highlight of the film, if the buzz is to be believed) chews up both her son (Ryan Gosling) and his girlfriend (Yayaying). It’s pretty entertaining; watch it below.