On this week’s episode of WWE Monday Night Raw, former Women’s World Champion and current tag team champion Liv Morgan was granted time off to star in a new movie. No such luck for her main squeeze, IC champ Dirty Dom Mysterio. Anyway, we know what that movie is and it’s a pretty big one. Morgan will star in the prolific Takashi Miike’s Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo for NEON, starring along with Shun Oguri and Lily James.
Here’s a synopsis via Deadline: “”Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo” will follow the Bad Lieutenant (Oguri), a corrupt gambler in the Metropolitan Police Force, who finds himself thrown into a tangled case after an enigmatic FBI agent (James) arrives in Tokyo to investigate the disappearance of a politician’s daughter (Morgan). Meanwhile, a deviant killer operating in the yakuza underworld seems to be shadowing their moves.”
The film will have a script by Daisuke Engan, who worked with Miike previously on classics such as Audition and 13 Assassins.
The Bad Lieutenant IP was first created by producer Edward R. Pressman. Previous films have been directed by Abel Ferrara starring Harvey Keitel, and Werner Herzog starring Nicolas Cage. Pressman’s son, Sam, produces through his Pressman Films banner.
“Director Miike brings a fearless new vision to the Bad Lieutenant, a character defined by the auteur,” Pressman said in a press statement. “Just as maestros [Abel] Ferrara and [Werner] Herzog delivered films as radically different as their own voices, Miike’s adaptation is unrelentingly wild and unique. My father Edward R. Pressman, always believed this story of corruption, both of police and the human soul, has a global resonance. To realize this next evolution now in Tokyo with Director Miike, NEON and my father’s lifelong friend Jeremy Thomas — all true believers in the power of independent cinema — is both an honor and a dream come true.”
Miike is best known for brutally violent action flicks such as Ichi the Killer and Dead or Alive. He is constantly at work and typically releases a couple of movies a year. He already has another film in the works starring pop star Charli xcx.
Oguri is a popular Japanese actor who has worked with Miike in the past on Crows Zero and other films. He made his Hollywood debut in 2021 with Godzilla vs. Kong. James is always busy and was recently seen in The Iron Claw, Greedy People, and Pam & Tommy. Morgan made her acting debut a couple of years ago in the action-comedy The Kill Room.
No release date yet for Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo but Miike moves quickly and will probably have it in theaters in 2026.
