Back in 2015, it was announced that a remake of the 80s cult classic Maniac Cop was in development, with John Hyams (Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning) directing, Nicolas Winding Refn (The Neon Demon) producing, and Ed Brubaker (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) penning the script.
Since then, there seems to have been very little in the way of progress, and in October of last year, Larry Cohen – writer of the original movie – was quoted as stating that the project was “not happening any more”. However, it seems that the remake is in fact very much alive, with Hyams telling Birth.Movies.Death that:
“It’d seem like nothing’s happening, but actually quite a bit is happening with it. We’ve been working on it for a few years now, with some starts and stops. But it is going to happen. Right now, Nic Refn, our producer, who is an amazing filmmaker and a really great guy – he’s stuck by me this whole time and hasn’t let up, which I’m deeply thankful for and inspired by – is getting everything set. But between Ed Brubaker and myself, we are developing it, and it actually just took an interesting turn recently. This is all stuff I’m going to be able to talk about a little more in the coming months, but things are definitely coming together on it.”
Maniac Cop was released in 1988 and starred Bruce Campbell as a young police officer wrongfully accused of a string of murders by a uniformed police officer, who sets out to prove his innocence by tracking down the real killer (played by Robert Z’Dar), a cop who has returned from the dead. It was followed by the sequels Maniac Cop 2 in 1990 andManiac Cop III: Badge of Silence in 1993.
