Actor Nicolas Cage has delivered gonzo performances in dozens of movies, but his turn as Red in 2018’s Mandy resulted in a picture that managed to impress not only genre audiences but also excited viewers at the Sundance and Cannes film festivals. Performer Miley Cyrus was so impressed with the experience that she even toyed with finding a way to translate to movie into a musical, one which would see her taking on the role made famous by Cage. That project never came to fruition, but Cyrus ultimately collaborated with Mandy director Panos Cosmatos on her upcoming album and also named one of her dogs Mandy.
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“I wanted to play Nicolas Cage,” Cyrus shared with Harper’s Bazaar. “I love that it’s a romance revenge story. Romance and revenge—those are some of the greatest tragedies. I forever and always will be interested in those.”
In the film, Red and his girlfriend Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) lead a life of relative isolation in the Pacific Northwest, only for Mandy to be abducted by the religious cult Children of the New Dawn. While she manages to escape initially, the cult makes her pay a fatal price for her transgressions, igniting a bloodthirsty revenge in Red that is fueled by both grief over his lost love as well as lots of cocaine.
[RELATED: Cabinet of Curiosities Director Panos Cosmatos Talks Developing His Netflix Anthology Episode]
Mandy sits at 90% positive reviews on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes and found itself on a number of Best of 2018 lists. Cosmatos’s previous film, 2010’s Beyond the Black Rainbow, didn’t earn as universal of acclaim, though its bizarre narrative and hypnotic, psychedelic visuals made the filmmaker a figure to keep an eye on among genre fans. The filmmaker would go on to collaborate with Guillermo del Toro on the Netflix anthology series Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, as Cosmatos reunited with his Mandy co-writer Aaron Stewart-Ahn for the episode “The Visit.”
Even though a musical reinvention didn’t pan out, Cosmatos and Cyrus collaborated together on her upcoming album, which the outlet claimed “is as much visual as it is musical.”
“It was inspired by Pink Floyd’s The Wall,” Cyrus pointed out. “We really leaned in. And so I have this heart-first attachment to it … My idea was making The Wall, but with a better wardrobe and more glamorous and filled with pop culture.”
Cosmatos added, “[The album is] more experimental than anything she’s ever done, but in a pop way that I love.”
While the idea of a blood-soaked tale of revenge being adapted into a musical might seem absurd, 2003 saw the debut of Evil Dead the Musical, which brought to life the events of Sam Raimi’s films.
Stay tuned for updates on the possible future of Mandy.
Would you like to see Cyrus turn the movie into a musical? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!
