Nicolas Winding Refn has been developing a female-centric horror movie for over a year now, with the working title I WALK WITH THE DEAD. Today, Gaumont and Wild Bunch have announced that Refn will be shooting the film, now titled THE NEON DEMON, in Los Angeles starting in early 2015 for a 2016 release.
We don't know what it's about, but we do have this Refn quote to go on:
“One morning I woke and realized I was both surrounded and dominated by women. Strangely, a sudden urge was planted in me to make a horror film about vicious beauty,” said Refn about the origins of the movie. “After making DRIVE and falling madly in love with the electricity of Los Angeles, I knew I had to return to tell the story of THE NEON DEMON”
In the documentary MY LIFE DIRECTED BY NICOLAS WINDING REFN, about the making of ONLY GOD FORGIVES in Bangkok, we see that a large amount of Refn's life and behavior is dictated by his wife and young daughter. He isn't the obtuse auteur that one might believe, but rather an accommodating and open family man, who tries at every juncture to invite his family into his process and professional life. However, he's also got a sense of humor: when asked about how he gets past negative reviews of his movies, Refn replied, "I just remember, 'Well, my wife's pretty hot…'". Refn already explored a poisonous female-male relationship with the Kirsten Scott Thomas/Ryan Gosling dynamic in ONLY GOD FORGIVES, but it seems he's going whole hog on this one by going in to straight-up horror territory, and the results will almost certainly be fascinating.
I still wish he did that hotel movie. But at least we're still seeing a Refn horror flick set in Los Angeles.
Expect THE NEON DEMON sometime in 2016.
