Nic Cage will play a depraved, drug addicted, whoring, stealing, gambling police officer by remaking an NC-17 role originally tackled by Harvey Keitel. The movie is Bad Lieutenant, and the original was directed by Abel Ferrera back in 1992. Variety says Nu Image/Millennium Films is pushing the remake, which they hope to start filming this summer.

The new version, in addition to starring Cage, will be directed by the always weird Werner Herzog. I haven’t seen the original, but if it was NC-17, you have to think it was pretty edgy. Herzog is never afraid to take his movies right to the edge, the question here is whether his backers will have the balls to let him do it. An NC-17 rating is certain death at the box office, and with a big star like Nic Cage on board it might be tempting to milk his stardom for everything it’s worth… and that means an R rating.