I’m not going to pile-on remakes today – frankly it’s old hat (although really I’m gonna take a wait and see approach). And I’m maybe a little more inclined to be nice to a remake that has the original film’s author attached. I’ll just tell you that Larry Cohen is mulling a redo of his ultra-weird GOD TOLD ME TO, according to Shock Till You Drop.
In the original, a NYC detective investigates a series of random murders in which the suspects claim that “God” told them to… I’ve seen this flick, albeit years ago, and I just remember it being a complete freakin’ befuddlement. Andy Kaufman plays a wacked-out killer cop, and I’m almost positive that we see Sylvia Sydney’s hoo-haa. (shudders) This, kids, is not an easy vision to shake, sitting within a movie that is not easy to understand.
Cohen – who is still going strong after all these years, having written flicks like PHONE BOOTH and the upcoming, much-troubled CAPTIVITY – told Shock’s Ryan Rotten:
“I was just talking about ‘God Told Me To’ being remade, there’s some interest in that…”
“James Gunn was talking about it yesterday, so we’ll see what happens. We’re going to do a remake of [the Fred Williamson-starring] ‘Black Caesar’ as well.”
Whether that really means Gunn was talking to him about being actively involved with these movies remains to be seen. It could also just as believebly been something like Gunn walks up to Cohen and says “You should remake God Told Me To! I love that movie!” And Cohen says, “Okay.”
Stay tuned as hopefully more details come through. And check out GOD TOLD ME TO. While strange and almost incomprehensible, it’s gritty guerilla filmmaking at its most twistedly ambitious.
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