Lars von Trier isn’t the only Danish director planning a film about nymphomaniacs. Rie Rasmussen, the outspoken bisexual former model and actress who made her directorial debut with the 2009 film ‘Human Zoo’, has been hired to oversee a remake of the David Cronenburg 1975 classic ‘Shivers’.
Also known as ‘They Came from Within’, Cronenburg’s original followed the infection of a high-rise residential building by a genetically-engineered strain of worm-like parasites that turn the occupants into sex-crazed fiends.
Quentin Tarantino, who is often described by media as being Rasmussen’s mentor, has no doubt the Dane is the right woman for the job. “Rie is a perfect choice to helm the remake of Shivers,” he said according to the film’s press release.
Rasmussen partially attributes her suitability to her nationality.
“I’m Scandinavian and am very comfortable with sexual expression as a part of a healthy, modern-day reality, and I’ve always loved the underlying social messages in a well-made horror film,” she said.
“The opportunity to reinterpret this film from today’s point of view, adding my own female intuition and life experience, was a temptation I couldn’t resist.”
When shooting starts in February, film-goers will be hopeful that Rasmussen can elaborate on what “today’s point of view” is better than the press release.
“The new ‘Shivers’ will be updated for today’s social and sexual realities,” it explains.
“In a post-HIV world, where people interact through screens rather than skin, the parasite breaks down those digital barriers. This is a world that is both more liberated than that of 1975, and more fearful and uptight.”
Rasmussen is no stranger to being liberated … in her opinions.
The former face of Gucci, who first sprang to fame in 2002 in a steamy lesbian sex scene in Brian De Palma’s ‘Femme Fatale’, famously confronted high-profile photographer Terry Richardson of being a predator who manipulates young models.
And she is also well known for her opinion on Victoria’s Secret. “The only time I worked for Victoria’s Secret was because I, like everybody else, wanted to fuck a supermodel,” she is widely quoted as saying. “And I did! And that was enough, for that one specific reason.”
