Back when Nicolas Winding Refn first started talking about his film I Walk with the Dead, he described it as an L.A. horror with a lot of sex. It may have taken awhile for the film, retitled The Neon Demon, to get moving but now that Refn is ready to roll he's found a star who has never starred in a film that promises to be so provocative.
Elle Fanning has taken the lead role in The Neon Demon, meaning that Carey Mulligan is no longer attached as had been suspected. Confirmed for a spring shoot just a couple of months ago with Cliff Martinez scoring and Philippe Le Sourd (The Grandmaster) providing the cinematography, the film has been most recently described as a "horror film about vicious beauty". Refn and Mary Laws co-wrote the script, with Fanning playing an aspiring model who is caught in a world of beauty and demise. Doesn't sound like the kind of role we'd expect out of Fanning which makes this all the more intriguing. She's been consistently edging her way up by taking more mature roles, like last year's drug-fueled biopic, Low Down.
Clearly Refn is excited to be working with Fanning on this, tweeting "Elle Fanning is a super cool wonder woman and I look forward to going on a terrifying trip with her into ‘The Neon Demon."
Filming on The Neon Demon is to begin this spring
