Director Panos Cosmatos’ revenge film Mandy quickly gained a devoted cult following when it was released back in 2018 – and one member of the Mandy cult is singer/songwriter Miley Cyrus, who is such a fan of the movie that she not only named one of her dogs after it, but she even contacted Cosmatos about collaborating on a musical remake of the film! If this musical remake had gone forward, Cyrus was wanting to play the character who was first brought to life by Nicolas Cage.
Set in the primal wilderness of an apocalyptic 1983, Mandy has the following synopsis: The quiet life of devoted couple Red (Nicolas Cage) and Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) takes a dark and bizarre turn when a nightmarish cult and their maniacal leader (Linus Roache) seek to possess Mandy… body and soul. A shocking assault on the innocent pair leads to a spiraling, surreal, bloody rampage of all out, mind-altering vengeance.
Speaking with Harper’s Bazaar, Miley Cyrus said that Mandy is one of the inspirations for the album she’s currently working on. She mentioned trying to get a musical remake off the ground and that “I wanted to play Nicolas Cage. “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.“
Cyrus got in contact with Cosmatos, and while they won’t be making that musical remake, he is heavily involved in the making of Cyrus’s new album, which is said to be as much visual as it is musical. Cosmatos said, “[The album is] more experimental than anything she’s ever done, but in a pop way that I love.“
Cyrus added that the album is also inspired by Pink Floyd’s The Wall, particularly the 1982 film that was based on the album, a movie that she first saw on the big screen when she was a teenager. With a good friend and one of her brothers, she smoked some weed, rented a limo, put on ’70s-style fur coats, and went to see The Wall. “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.“
So we have a Wall-inspired Cyrus and Cosmatos collaboration to look forward to, but the musical remake of Mandy appears to be off the table. What do you think of all this? Let us know by leaving a comment below.