Werner Herzog is the great madman of cinema, the man can make anything sound rational in his crisp German tones. If he came out with a plan to lock his actors in a closet with radioactive scorpions to ensure a truthful performance, no one would say boo.
But now the madman may have met his match. For his next movie he’s dealing with major studio distribution for the first time in a long time. Rescue Dawn, based on his haunting documentary Little Dieter Needs To Fly, is about a pilot who is captured by the Viet Cong and then escapes, but has no idea to what he has escaped to. The film has already had an eventful production pedigree to say the least. During filming Herzog was shot during an interview and continued on with it anyway saying “It was not a significant bullet.” Along the way he also pulled Joaquin Phoenix from a burning car.
Herzog's films have always been marked by production nightmares, that's been part of the charm. From forcing an actor to act at gunpoint in Aguirre The Wrath Of God, to dragging a steamship up a mountainside for real in Fitzcarleddo, to hypnotizing the entire cast and crew so they would follow his commands exactly in Heart Of Glass, it's quite telling that perhaps the easiest subjects he's had to work with were the Grizzly Bears in last years superb documentary Grizzly Man.
But his greatest challenge is still to come as he tries to keep MGM from screwing up the release of what could be a masterpiece. Herzog is a controversial, and sometimes dangerous director. The Hollywood crowd may not go for it. In all these years of constant work he's never had to deal with the establishment. Now that has changed, and I'd lay money on the fact that the fallout will be tremendous. Herzog is quite possibly the most independent filmmaker in the world. Expect the hear MGM's lion roar in pain and they find themselves smashed against the mighty German's mind control and clean soothing diction. He won't give up his independence without a fight.
Rescue Dawn will star Christian Bale and Steve Zahn (That’s right Steve Zahn) and should be released in December. I can't wait to see what happens.
