Following his break-out hit Drive and the divisive Only God Forgives, we’ve been waiting to hear when Nicolas Winding Refn would be back for his next feature. Word finally arrived this summer that he’d be returning to Los Angeles with a horror film featuring an all-female cast titled I Walk With the Dead, and now we have more details on the project.
Gaumont and Wild Bunch have revealed they will team to finance and distribute the film, which is now titled The Neon Demon, scripted by Refn and Mary Laws (although, oddly, no mention of original screenwriter Polly Stenham is included in the press release). “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,” Refn says. “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.”
Cliff Martinez will return to score, while frequent collaborator Matthew Newman will edit, and Philippe Le Sourd (The Grandmaster) has come aboard as cinematographer. With production set to begin in the first quarter of 2015, a 2016 release is planned and we can expect the cast to be announced shortly. As we await news of the ensemble, check out the teaser poster below.
Are you looking forward to Refn’s next project?