I just spotted this on Lashtal, it’s old, but split my attention somehow.

Bronson filmaker Nicolas Winding Refn is planning a new Aleister Crowley movie. Let’s just hope that he does a better job than some of the more recent efforts.From Fangoria:

Nicolas Winding Refn - Considering Crowley

Nicolas Winding Refn - Considering Crowley

“I’m a massive fan of filmmaker Kenneth Anger,” explains the Danish filmmaker, who’s currently finishing off his new horror/fantasy VALHALLA RISING. “His work, like INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME and INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER, informed the look and tone of BRONSON to some degree, and I was going through my Anger book collection to see if there was anything missing. I found ‘The Aleister Crowley Scrapbook’ by Colin Wilson, in which Anger speaks about the villa in Cefalu, Sicily where the infamous British occultist played a lot of his black magic sex games.

“So imagine my surprise, while leafing through it, to come across a picture of Crowley as a young man, the spitting image of Tom Hardy! Immediately it started me thinking about applying the same logic to a film on Crowley as I had on BRONSON. Bronson’s frustration was all about his inability to express himself through violent celebrity; prison finally transformed his aimless life into that of a sensitive artist. Similarly, Crowley finding himself through drugs, astrology, black magic and bisexuality could become another fascinating metaphor—to explore the concept of what it means to the British in terms of eccentric hedonism.”

Crowley magicking it up!

Crowley magicking it up!

The recent UK chiller CROWLEY (a.k.a. CHEMICAL WEDDING) took cues from the occultist’s life to tell a contemporary story of possession, but Refn is aiming for more of a twisted biographical piece. “I am not knowledgeable at all about Crowley’s life,” Refn admits, “and I will need a good writer to put all these ideas in formation. But the moment I called Tom and suggested the project, he didn’t hesitate to say yes. His only question was, ‘When do we start?’ We had a great working relationship on BRONSON, and finally, after many years of trying to break through, I believe he’s now on his way to real stardom. I couldn’t think of anyone better to play the young Crowley. I have no title as yet, and will not be able to get around to it until after the proposed PUSHER 4 at least. But there’s definitely a far-out, sexy, trippy, horrifying movie to be made out of this notorious, Satan-worshipping cult personality. Think Charles Manson times a billion, and that’s what I want to depict on screen.”

Ken Eakins

About the Author

Ken Eakins is a filmmaker and weird stuff enthusiast from the South of England.

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