'Maniac Cop' Remake Reportedly Not Moving Forward

As far as defining horror films from the '80s go, not many people would immediately think of [...]

As far as defining horror films from the '80s go, not many people would immediately think of Maniac Cop, despite the zombie revenge slasher having a devout cult following. Of those fans, Drive and Neon Demon director Nicolas Winding Refn was one of the more passionate, having long talked about directing a remake of the lesser-known horror film. Sadly, the original film's writer, Larry Cohen, recently revealed the remake is currently dead in the water.

When asked about the status of the remake at a screening of Maniac Cop 2, Birth.Movies.Death. reports that Cohen's responded to the progress, "As far as I know, that's not happening anymore, and if it is, they might be trying to keep it a secret, as they'd owe me $250,000."

Thanks to his recent films, Refn has gained much critical acclaim, which would make one think he could easily raise the funds to get the project going. Unfortunately, Cohen expressed this wasn't the case.

"As far as I know, he was the one trying to get the money raised to make the picture, and he didn't get it, so now it's not happening," Cohen shared. "If it is, I would like to be paid, or I'm going to call my lawyer, and it's getting shut down."

Understandably, the writer is protective of the series he created, and while Ed Brubaker is a lauded comic book writer, Cohen didn't think Brubaker's script met his own personal standards.

"Ed Brubaker wrote the script, and I've read the script, and it's not very good," Cohen divulged. "Ed Brubaker is a very good writer of comic books, I think. But if he's written a good script for a movie, I haven't read it."

Cohen couldn't help but inflate his ego a bit, saying it was his lack of involvement that prevents the film from moving forward.

The filmmaker shared: "I wrote six new scenes for the picture, based on what I'd read. And, had I written the whole script, the movie would probably be happening, as the script would be good. I wrote three films for Bill Lustig, though they changed a lot of [Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence] and Bill got fired from it…and I would've written the fourth movie, had they asked. But they didn't, and now it's not getting made."

Given Hollywood's attitude that any movie is fair game for a remake, so long as it has a catchy title, it could only be a matter of time before the spotlight shines on Maniac Cop once again. For now, we can expect countless other horror classics to get the remake treatment in the near future.

0comments