'Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans' Producers Want It To Spawn A Franchise

It should be understood that the new film "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" is not technically a remake. Filmmaker Werner Herzog has supposedly never even seen Abel Ferrara's original 1992 film, simply titled "Bad Lieutenant," and the only connections are the title and the fact that both films' protagonists are indeed bad police lieutenants.

Now, according to statements made to the Los Angeles Times in a piece about the second picture, producers Alan and Gabe Polsky hope to continue the "Bad Lieutenant" name as an ongoing franchise.

Initially, the Polskys sought to finance a straight sequel to Ferrara's cult classic, and they wanted both the director and his star, Harvey Keitel, to return. However, that plan didn't pan out due to disagreements over the script. So the producers tapped Herzog instead, and the project became something of a stand-alone sequel, now starring Nicolas Cage as a character unrelated to Keitel's. Though the second film was initially announced as a remake or reimagining, it's more akin to sequels that have little or no narrative connection to the original, a la "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" and, somewhat, "Teen Wolf Too."

Given the successful collaboration of Herzog and Cage, and before them Ferrara and Keitel, the Polskys admit they'd like to go further with other "interesting combos" for more stand-alone "Bad Lieutenant" installments. They specifically propose the director/actor team-ups of Darren Aronofsky and Brad Pitt and Michel Gondry and Bill Murray, which both sound like great ideas.

Here are five other suggestions:

1. Terry Gilliam and Johnny Depp
2. Lars von Trier and Willem Dafoe
3. Spike Lee and Denzel Washington
4. Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro
5. Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz

Unfortunately, another producer of "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," Edward R. Pressman, doesn't like the idea of a "Bad Lieutenant" franchise. And since he owns the rights, not the Polskys, Pressman says the idea is not plausible. So it looks like there's an uphill battle to be fought before we have any hope of seeing another "Bad Lieutenant."

Would you like Pressman to allow the Polskys to make more installments of a "Bad Lieutenant" anthology? What director and actor combo would you most like to see make one of these films?

Tags bad lieutenant, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Harvey Keitel, nicolas cage, werner herzog