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Looks like Refn's latest film has been renamed from I Walk With the Dead to The Neon Demon. Still supposedly an (almost) all female cast. Production is set to begin in May:

AV Club

Horror seems like a logical step after Only God Forgives.

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Horror seems like a logical step after Only God Forgives.

Yeah I definitely agree, it was already walking the line of becoming a horror film.

I for one am excited for this film. Refn and Carey Mulligan reunited for an LA shot horror, hopefully this will be more like Drive and less like Only God Forgives

One ticket please.

Looks like Keanu Reeves and Christina Hendricks have joined the cast of The Neon Demon, a horror film which will be about "a group of vicious and maniacal models".

Variety

AV Club

With special appearances by Kip Pardue as Victor and Andrew McCarthy as Clay.

John Cope wrote:With special appearances by Kip Pardue as Victor and Andrew McCarthy as Clay.

Is it linked to Bret Easton Ellis' body of work somehow ?

tenia wrote:

John Cope wrote:With special appearances by Kip Pardue as Victor and Andrew McCarthy as Clay.

Is it linked to Bret Easton Ellis' body of work somehow ?

Well, the poster art and the capsule summary at least would seem to suggest so.

I like it. Nice to see Desmond Harrington (Quinn from Dexter) in something substantial. I'm also getting the vibe that Elle Fanning may be Elizabeth Olson to Dakota Fanning's Mary-Kate and Ashley.

He was on one episode of Justified and was pretty good in that. I remember almost nothing good from his run on Dexter, but I won't put that on his feet as much as I would anyone else for the problems with that show.

flyonthewall2983 wrote:He was on one episode of Justified and was pretty good in that. I remember almost nothing good from his run on Dexter, but I won't put that on his feet as much as I would anyone else for the problems with that show.

Yeah, he wasn't too memorable but I had the notion he was a decent actor and given the right material he could deliver something special.

In the Justified ep he managed to invoke Tom Cruise in Collateral and Billy Drago in The Untouchables if memory serves me correctly. One of the pleasures of that show was just how much mileage they could get out of people with comparatively not much screen time compared to everyone else.

When I get a text from LQ about how hot a trailer is, I don't think it matters what I think - I'll be seeing it regardless. But I think it looks pretty good, if a little ridiculous. I can deal with a new Black Swan arriving on the scene every 5-10 years.

It looks closer to Under the Skin for me though the Black Swan comparisons are certainly apt. I figured Refn would have gone for something more gory and almost trashy considering some of his more grindhouse influences. I'm glad that instinct was proven wrong, this looks great.

Luke M wrote:I'm also getting the vibe that Elle Fanning may be Elizabeth Olson to Dakota Fanning's Mary-Kate and Ashley.

You're a little late to the party, Elle Fanning's been doing amazing work for years. Dakota Fanning not so much

Night Moves was pretty swell.

domino harvey wrote:

Luke M wrote:I'm also getting the vibe that Elle Fanning may be Elizabeth Olson to Dakota Fanning's Mary-Kate and Ashley.

You're a little late to the party, Elle Fanning's been doing amazing work for years. Dakota Fanning not so much

Ah, I hadn't seen her in anything aside from Super 8 and Maleficent. Good to hear.

Luke M wrote:

flyonthewall2983 wrote:He was on one episode of Justified and was pretty good in that. I remember almost nothing good from his run on Dexter, but I won't put that on his feet as much as I would anyone else for the problems with that show.

Yeah, he wasn't too memorable but I had the notion he was a decent actor and given the right material he could deliver something special.

I though he was pretty good on Dexter but the script was developed inconsistently. I also saw him on Justified and he rocked in that role. His casting is actually a surprisingly good one, somehow he makes sense to me in a Refn movie.

Luke M wrote:

domino harvey wrote:

Luke M wrote:I'm also getting the vibe that Elle Fanning may be Elizabeth Olson to Dakota Fanning's Mary-Kate and Ashley.

You're a little late to the party, Elle Fanning's been doing amazing work for years. Dakota Fanning not so much

Ah, I hadn't seen her in anything aside from Super 8 and Maleficent. Good to hear.

She was pretty terrific in Ginger & Rosa.

This is definitely in my top 3 films I want to see at Cannes. I really liked Elle in Somewhere.

Neon Demon has nice style, but is lacking in substance. I prefer both Drive and Only God Forgives over Demon. I appreciated Refn's use of music as always, and some of the glittery visuals were top tier, but the final act was not well executed, in my opinion. I give it maybe 7/10, max. Would not recommend to casual viewers.

This film has less substance than the last two Refn films? How is that possible?

I enjoyed it. It's a film, the more I reflect on, the more I appreciate. I read one critic call it the most Nicolas Winding Refn-ian film yet. I agree and I don't think that's a knock on the film. Typically when directors are free to indulge the results are at best underwhelming (see PTA post-TWBB and Malick post-New World). But here I'm kinda digging what Refn is trying to do. I think the film works including the somewhat jarring final act. His ambitions here aren't nearly as lofty as the aforementioned directors (yet he still gets the pretentious label thrown at him). The Neon Demon is a simple story with hyper-stylized visuals. To steal the title of one of Kanye's best albums, it's a beautiful dark twisted fantasy.