Ryan Gosling and director Nicolas Winding Refn delivered one of the year's best films with Drive and the two re-teamed for the remake of Logan's Run and the indie drama Only God Forgives. Not much was known about Only God Forvies, and a previous synopsis and logline provided conflicting information, but Steve went to the American Film Market (AFM) earlier today and was able to pick up an official logline and synopsis. Here's the logline:
Only God Forgives is a fast, powerful, high-profile, action and violent revenge story with Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas, never seen before, as a merciless and terrifying mafia godmother.
After the jump, you can read all of the previous synopsis and logline, and then read the new synopsis. Only God Forgives also stars Luke Evans, and reteams Refn with his Bronson cinematographer Larry Smith and editor Matthew Newman.
The original logline we heard in May said the movie was about "a Thai police lieutenant whose rivalry with a gangster sees the two settling their differences in a Thai boxing match."
Then Twitch reported in June that this was the official synopsis:
"Julian is on the run from the British police. He runs a Thai Boxing club in Bangkok which is a front for a drugs smuggling operation. He is well respected within the criminal underworld, but deep in his heart he feels that his life is lacking something. He meets a retired cop, The Angel of Vengeance, and finds out that he has to confront his mother."
In July, Refn said Only God Forgives was his take on the Western genre.
And here's the synopsis Steve found at AFM today:
Julian, an Englishman living in Bangkok, is a respected figure in the criminal underworld. He and his brother Billy run a Thai boxing club which is in fact a front for smuggling drugs to London. When Billy is murdered, their mother Jenna arrives from London to bring back the body. Jenna is herself the head of a powerful criminal organization and is used to getting exactly what she wants. She sets out to settle the score along a bloody path of rage, betrayal, and vengeance, hurtling toward an ultimate confrontation and the possibility of redemption.
As you can see, this synopsis involves elements of the one from June and the logline from May was completely off-base. I'm going to assume that Gosling and Evans play the brothers, but I'm not sure who's Julian and who's Billy. In any case, it definitely sounds like a fantastic role for Kristin Scott Thomas and another great film for Refn.
