Even for a movie with such a great deal of drug abuse, there is a lot of crazy stuff that goes on in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - break-dancing souls, imaginary lizards, and dream sequences that turn out to be real. As a movie set in the here-and-now, it takes quite a few liberties with "reality," so one must wonder how it would have been treated if sent into the distant future. Now it looks like we won't have to wonder much longer.
Gabe and Alan Polsky, the producers of the Herzog film, have optioned Gun, With Occasional Music, a "sci-fi noir" based on the novel by Jonathan Lethem, according to THR. Based in the style of pulp writers like Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, the story revolves around a private investigator based in the Bay Area who is hired by a man who claims that he has been framed for the murder of a urologist. Did I mention that there are also super-smart babies, called baby-heads, walking around and gun-toting kangaroos working for the mob? It gets a bit weird, so it would seem to be right up the Polsky brothers' alley.
When people start tossing around the concept of "sci-fi noir," people will inevitably begin drawing comparisons to Blade Runner, but while it would be a true challenge to stack up against that level of awesomeness, there is quite a good load of potential here. The book has a large cult following, and as long as it implements the right amount of style without being overtly silly, it could be a huge hit. If not, we might have another Adventures of Pluto Nash headed our way. I do have one name to float to the casting department, however: Jon Hamm. Don Draper is basically a pulp fiction character as it is.
