Maniac Cop remake will be completely different tonally

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

If you're convinced that the remake of William Lustig's 1988 film MANIAC COP is never going to happen, that's totally understandable. There hasn't been a lot of obvious progress made on the project since it was first announced two years ago, and one of the biggest pieces of news we've heard about came when Larry Cohen, writer of the original MANIAC COP trilogy, said the remake wasn't happening anymore and that screenwriter Ed Brubaker had written a script for it that's "not very good" anyway.

Despite all that, the remake is still creeping forward, with UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION / UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING director John Hyams attached to direct and Nicolas Winding Refn producing through his company Space Rocket Nation.

Speaking with Adam Green and Joe Lynch on their podcast The Movie Crypt, Hyams confirmed that MANIAC COP is still in the works.

We’ve spent the last several years now developing this thing and… what we’re trying to do is make something that we’re taking the ideas of MANIAC COP and exploring then in a deep way.… Our hope is that this is something that people who are fans of the original will find great pleasure in what we’re doing, because if you’re into genre storytelling you’re going to be into it, but I also think we’re telling a story about something bigger than that, which is really the breakdown of society.… It’s a big story that needed a larger canvas."

He also let the hosts and listeners know that this version of the concept is going to stand apart from the existing trilogy.

It will be a completely different thing tonally. I think that’s why I was hired. I think the reason why Nick was interested in me was because he saw what I had done with UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, in the sense that I took it and made it my own and went completely off the reservation with it. Nick Refn loves exploitation cinema as much as the next guy, but he also is not interested in paying homage to things. He loves MANIAC COP, he loves the idea of it, he loves everything it represents, but he has no intention of making a tribute story."

This sounds interesting. While I would be perfectly happy with a new MANIAC COP movie that had exactly the same tone as the first three movies (and might end up wishing this remake was tonally the same, we'll have to wait and see), I'm intrigued to see what Hyams, Refn, and Brubaker have come up with.

Thanks to Entertainment Weekly for the interview transcript.