PARK CITY, UTAH — Casting Marilyn Manson as a teenager takes at least a little imagination, and director Quentin Dupieux never seems to be shy of that. During the Sundance Film Festival, the brain behind “Rubber” and the more recent “Wrong” introduced his freak version of a perfect world, “Wrong Cops.”
And in its first “episode” of three shown at the fest, Manson is needled by lead lousy cop Mark Burnham for his music taste and is falsely accused of prostitution.
In this dys-utopia, Manson worked his casting. “He killed it,” Dupieux said in the Q&A after premiere.
He also explained how an industrial/hard rock musician found his way into an absurdity like “Wrong Cops.” “[Manson] was in love with ‘Rubber,'” the French director said. “I wrote the part for him… he just did it.”
Many of the oddballs and delinquent law enforcement officers of “Wrong Cops” carry the whimsy and inspired lunacy because, traditionally, they’re the lot you call when you need some lunatics and delinquents. As in: Eric Wareheim (of Tim & Eric) spends his scenes fumbling with his lame horndoggery. Steve Little reminds audiences of his brilliance of his stint on “Eastbound & Down.” Don Stark, Ray Wise, Jennifer Blanc, Arden Myrin (MADtv), Dupieux alumni like Jack Plotnick and Daniel Quinn and others all work their wares around a challenging comedic tempo — a speed set by Dupieux’s musical compositions, created under his longtime producer/DJ name Mr. Oizo.
So, to that point, having a name like Marilyn Manson attached isn’t all that strange. Just how did the cast react to the addition of Manson to the cast list?
“They all puked,” Dupieux said, without missing a beat. “Everybody was excited of course.”
“Wrong Cops” will be 90-minutes long when production is finished; only 45 minutes (or three chapters) were shown during Sundance, and the first made its premiere at Cannes late last year.