Werner Herzog's new film, Bad Lieutenant, is out next Friday, and just to prepare you for the awesome insanity of what you're about to see, here's a demented clip from the film to brighten up your day. Yes, that's Nicolas Cage, Val Kilmer, and two iguanas with a taste for easy listening.
It's the story of Cage's drug-addled, corrupt cop Terence McDonagh and his attempts to investigate the killing of a family murdered in an apparent drug conflict. He's also involved with a prostitute called Frankie (Eva Mendes), and apparently having visions of, er, iguanas on his stake-outs with partner Stevie Pruitt (Kilmer). As you do.
Asked why he includes animals in such pivotal roles recently, Werner Herzog told San Francisco's Screen Shots that, "I just like casting animals in major roles. In Bad Lieutenant, I rather impulsively decided I wanted iguanas and alligators in the movie, and I told the cinematographer that he wasn't to go near them. I had to shoot them myself. So I took a camera and a fiberoptic wire, and I shot the iguanas in extreme closeup to make them look as confused and stupid as possible."
Bad Lieutenant (no longer suffixed "Port of Call: New Orleans" in this country) is out on May 21.