HBO has officially given the green light to a Maniac Cop project, headed by Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn. Joining him is John Hyams, of Universal Soldier fame. Both are slated to produce and direct the series. NWR Originals is the name of Refn’s independent studio – this reboot of Larry Cohen & William Lustig’s beloved horror entry will be the studio’s first production.
Fans who have been paying attention to the fate of the Maniac Cop series may not be too surprised by Refn’s involvement. In 2017, Refn attempted to produce a fresh Maniac Cop movie reboot. This seems to have morphed into the HBO series we now have on the horizon.
Originally released in 1988, Maniac Cop spawned two sequels and became a cult favorite. Starring B-movie favorites Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, and Robert Z’Dar, the film focuses on an exhumed, reanimated killer cop out for revenge.
In an interview with the Movie Crypt podcast in late 2018, Hyams said that the Maniac Cop reboot he was involved in would be “a completely different thing, tonally.” He went on to say, “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.”
Comments made by Larry Cohen about the potential reboot (before his death earlier this year) seem to indicate that he might be against it – he told Birth Movies Death in 2017 that the reboot was “not getting made”.
Do you think we need a Maniac Cop reboot? Let us know in the comments!
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