ONLY GOD FORGIVES (Refn Speaks)

• ONLY GOD FORGIVES

Ryan Gosling in Only God Forgives

Only God Forgives, will see Ryan Gosling as a man who’s been living in exile in Bangkok for the past ten years after killing a cop. He manages a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation and finds himself in hot water after his brother is killed for murdering a prostitute. The boys’ mother arrives in Bangkok to collect her son’s body and instructs Gosling to take revenge and “raise hell.”

Ryan Gosling & Nicolas Winding Refn a Match made in Heaven!!

Nicolas Winding Refn, who is the man behind the cult hit of last year with Drive, which also stars Ryan, recently spoke a bit about the making of the film and even touched on his next project, a horror movie/sex thriller called I Walk with the Dead starring Carey Mulligan.

Speaking at length with the French outlet Liberation (translated by the trusty The Playlist), Refn addressed the casting change that occurred when Luke Evans dropped out of the lead role and elaborated on the tone he’s set for the pic:

“From the beginning, I had the idea of a thriller produced as a western, all in the Far East, and with a modern cowboy hero. I was lucky, Ryan Gosling has accepted the role when Luke Evans withdrew. He preferred to star Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit…Luke Evans’ agent has probably done him a great service.”

Carey Mulligan & Ryan Gosling Drive Fan Art

Refn also talked about his filming process, saying that he shoots largely in chronological order and prefers to shoot on the fly rather than rely on storyboards:

“I hate the idea that the film is over before we started shooting… I spent whole nights finding places in Bangkok. Especially in Chinatown, where most of the film unfolds. We saw dozens of nightclubs, each more kitsch than each other, the walls covered with carved paneling, thick velvet, with flowers in colored plastic gueulardes, erotic statues or classic gold…they give me ideas for scenes.”

Finally, the director confirmed that I Walk with the Dead will be his next film, and he’s already secured financing. He describes it as a horror movie and says, “We’ll turn to Los Angeles or Tokyo.”

Not much is known about the plot, but Refn previously said the project came about because he always wanted to “make a movie with lots of sex.”

He’ll reunite with his Drive cohort Carey Mulligan on the flick, but no production start date has been set.