Nicolas Winding Refn Preps Big Screen Comeback With Tokyo-Set Movie

After delivering a pair of limited series for streamers, Nicolas Winding Refn is preparing his return to feature filmmaking. Refn told Variety that he’s getting ready to shoot his next movie in Tokyo. The project will be in English and Japanese, and will mark his first feature film since 2016’s ”The Neon Demon.”

The New York-raised Danish filmmaker is attending the Venice Film Festival with the world premiere of his short “Beauty Is not a Sin,” produced by Art + Vibes for Italian motorcycle brand MV Agusta, as well as the screening of his 1996 debut movie, “Pusher,” in Venice Classics.

While he claimed “cinema is dead” several years ago, Refn now finds that returning to moviemaking in the current context is an act of “defiance.”

“It’s a really interesting time to make movies because it’s such a chaotic situation,” he said. “So going back and making a theatrical feature film again is almost like — not starting over — but with all the changes in our societies in the last five years and technology changes, it almost seems like the right thing to do for me.”

He added, ”Feature film is still the mother of all mediums” and he’s eager to “re-experience that process.” His new movie is financed and will shoot next year. It’s based on an original story whose plot is under wraps, but it “will have a lot of glitter and lot of sex and violence,” Refn promised.

“I think it’s hard for me to escape my self-indulgent identity in creativity. So there will always be me in it,” he said.

Refn also hinted that the movie will bring back themes and characters inspired by his last features, “Only God Forgives” and “The Neon Demon.” Both were equally stylish and graphic, and created a stir at the Cannes Film Festival where they both competed in 2013 and 2016, respectively.

Refn is also working on two more projects, one of which is tied to gaming. He said he’s “very fascinated by what the technology can provide” and it’s the “only art form that continues to evolve with possibilities creatively.”

Refn asked, ”In a way, had the Lumiere brothers, when they invented film, invented computer games first, what would the world look like?”

Addressing the retrospective screening of “Pusher” and his short “Beauty Is not a Sin” at Venice, Refn said, “It’s a bit of a strange experience, having your past suddenly come up in this way” and said each title symbolized “[his] future and [his] past.”

MV Agusta’s ”Beauty Is Not a Sin” is the first commercial to world premiere in the official selection at the Venice Film Festival, and Refn predicted it will open a floodgate.

“From now on, every commercial is going to try to get into Venice,” he said, adding that he’s happy to help launch that because branded work represents an “opportunity for the future for filmmakers.”

Refn, who was given carte blanche to direct the short for MV Agusta and previously helmed the short “Touch of Crude” for fashion house Prada, said he sees “no difference between making an eight-minute movie and a traditional two-hour movie.”

Refn is also closely watching the U.S. presidential election and described it as the world’s greatest reality show. “We’re just waiting for the season finale,” he quipped.

“When all the politicians have fucked up the world and created so much war and inequality that is destroying humanity” he added, “the artist’s function is to come in and try to make it just a little more tolerable in the world.”