Before the premiere of his neon-noir acid western on January 5, Nicolas Winding Refn talks about the room for improvement within the Hollywood industry
Danish filmmaker Nicholas Winding Ref returns to television in his upcoming series Copenhagen Cowboy in front of Netflix On January 5th. The upcoming noir thriller is his first project in four years and marks his second television series via a streaming platform. While best known for his signature polarizing and magnetic film catalog, which includes the Pusher trilogy and Ride, he welcomed the continued presence of streaming as the entertainment industry continued to change to keep up with the demand for content. During a recent Crew Call Podcast Interview, Refn expressed his feelings about Hollywood’s current system and why it needs to be challenged to become better for future film projects amid the current reinvention.
Through his work, Refn has always maintained his autonomy and independence as a filmmaker, despite a shifting Hollywood industry and their targeting for mainstream projects. “Hollywood is very seductive and intoxicating, but it is also a system that is desperately falling apart. And I think they do it to themselves more than anything,” Refn said. “Who knows? I’d like to make something grand and big, but I’d like to keep my freedom, my impulse and creative control.”
although Copenhagen Cowboy marks his second television series for a major streamer, he remains adamant about preserving the integrity and legacy of the film market as a way to ensure that more in-depth projects can continue to flourish.
“The theater market is in its own redefinition of existence. For cinema to survive, we have to go back and make films again. There must also be an ecosystem that reflects the opportunities. Streaming has forced the theater market to reinvent itself. I don’t think theater will ever go away. I think theatrical will always be there, but it needs to be challenged to become better, more adequate and more meaningful.”
Copenhagen Cowboy is the feminist parallel to the Pusher trilogy
Nicolas Winding Refs Copenhagen Cowboy is a six-episode neon-noir series created during the uncertainty of the pandemic with the help of his two daughters and wife Liv Corfixen, who serves as co-executive producer. The acid western focuses on a gifted young woman named Mui, a lone wolf protagonist who characteristically resembles Ryan Gosling’s Driver in Ride and Tonny from Mads Mikkelson in the Pusher franchise. True to its crime thriller nature, the story revolves around Mui’s discord in Copenhagen’s criminal world as she pursues revenge. With the Pusher trilogy centered on masculinity, Refn felt the transition to Copenhagen Cowboy was a ‘natural evolution towards femininity’.
When talk about the beginning of the serieswhich focuses on the renegade superhero Mui, Refn said:
“We were stuck in Denmark during the pandemic and I really didn’t know what the world would look like. I came up with the concept of what I wanted to do. Netflix Nordic was founded. Once they heard I was thinking about expanding the Pusher trilogy into a new story, they got on board.”