Ryan Gosling will be teaming up with Nicolas Winding Refn again to give us Only God Forgives, the follow up to their critically acclaimed 2011 film Drive.
Said to be even more violent than Drive, the gritty and dark film will center around the Thai boxing underworld. Though news on Only God Forgives has been quiet as of late, today we have some new stills that feature Gosling all bloodied and beaten.
As an added bonus, we also have a report on the footage that was screened at Cannes. AICN had a chance to check out a 3 minute scene from the upcoming spiritual successor to Drive and here’s what they had to say.
….there are a few Drive touchstones in the footage: long tracking shots, liberal use of neon lighting (in this case purple and green) and a silent, but violent Ryan Gosling. The footage opened with a long dolly shot down a dark and exotic hallway, overlaid with titles in a foreign language I’m pretty sure was Thai.
There’s not a whole lot to the footage, honestly. The camera finds a room in what now seems to be a club of some sort, possibly a high-end strip club. Two Thai men in white suits sit laughing on a long couch in one corner, Gosling sits in another staring at a nervous looking girl holding a microphone. She’s not singing or looking like she’s about to sing, just standing there looking sad and lost in her thoughts. Gosling stands abruptly, walks calmly over to the two Thai men having a good time and proceeds to smash one of the men’s drinks into this face, shattering the glass against his teeth.
Punches are thrown, Gosling dominating the fight, which continues out into the hall where Gosling grabs the hurt man by THE MOUTH (he’s lying on the floor, gasping in pain and Gosling just goes ahead and sticks his hand into the dude’s mouth and drags him down the hall by his upper jaw) and throws him out of the building. The man’s friend kicks Gosling from behind, they brawl and Gosling ends up not only beating them both, he decides that’s not enough and removes his belt and starts a-whippin’.
From this description alone, I think we’re in for a real treat. I loved Drive, it was one of my favorite films of the year and I’m very excited to see what Gosling and Refn cook up next, especially if it’s going to be more dark and violent than Drive was.
The duo is already starting to draw comparisons to Scorsese/De Niro and if they keep up on the current path that they’re on, I’m sure they’ll enjoy just as much success.
