NeonEvery now and then, a movie will accidentally start a franchise. Usually, this is the result of an original script being grafted onto an existing premise, like how Saw 2 was an unrelated script called The Desperate, or how American Psycho 2 started production as a standalone story before some Patrick Bateman references were crammed in.An especially strange example of this phenomenon is 1992’s Bad Lieutenant, starring Harvey Keitel and directed by Abel Ferrara. It was followed by 2009’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which was kind of a very loose remake of a movie that director Werner Herzog said he had no interest in ever seeing, prompting Ferrara to express his desire for Herzog and star Nicolas Cage to die in a streetcar explosion. Everyone ultimately survived the argument over the spiritual sequel, and now a third filmmaker is taking on this eclectic neo-noir thriller, despite the risk of incurring Abel Ferrara’s wrath. Takashi Miike, director of Audition and 13 Assassins, is making Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, starring Shun Oguri, Lily James, and Liv Morgan. Check out the teaser below.This isn’t a very illuminating teaser, showing split-second cuts of different moments and a single line of dialogue, “A cold-blooded psychopath.” But it’s enough to express what this is: a hard-boiled, neo-noir thriller full of action sequences, just like the previous two movies. However, there are a few key differences. It’s not rated NC-17, like the original Bad Lieutenant, and it appears to be much more grounded than the over-the-top melodrama of Port of Call New Orleans. And we do have a little knowledge of what’s coming. “A disgraced Tokyo detective spirals into a world of corruption, addiction, and violence as he becomes entangled in a twister investigation involving a vengeful ex-Yakuza, an enigmatic FBI agent, and a missing daughter of a powerful American family,” the movie’s official description reads.Shun Oguri and Lily James in Takashi Miike’s upcoming Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo. | NeonWhile this looks like a Miike movie from top to bottom, the inclusion of a powerful American family implies the movie will stay true to its roots. But like all the best international remakes, a different approach will hopefully show the premise in a fresh light. Bad Lieutenant was a gritty crime thriller and Port of Call New Orleans an unrelated black comedy; now Miike has a chance to put his own spin on a very unlikely franchise. Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo does not yet have a release date.