For many years, there’s been talk – and attempts – to bring a remake of Maniac Cop to the big screen. Nicolas Winding Refn, best known for Drive, has been working on the film, and back in March, it looked like the project was pressing ahead. With a script in place by Ed Brubaker, the movie got given the green light.
But it looks like it’s back to square one.
Larry Cohen, the man behind the original Maniac Cop, has given an update to BMD, and it’s not a positive one.
“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”, he said. “Ed Brubaker wrote the script, and I’ve read the script, and it’s not very good. 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”.
Ouch.
“I wrote six new scenes for the picture, based on what I’d read”, Cohen continued. “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”.
“I would’ve written the fourth movie, had they asked. But they didn’t, and now it’s not getting made”.
So there you have it. Unless things change, the new Maniac Cop has little chance of making it to active duty. More as we hear it…
BMD.