MANIAC COP Reimagining Rolls Cameras In Los Angeles Beginning January 2027
Remake chatter over Maniac Cop has been on our radar for close to eleven years now and the word out of Cannes is that director Nicolas Winding Refn is setting up to make this his next venture. To assert his resolve, the filmmaker issued some teaser imagery on Instagram overlooking Los Angeles where he will commence filming in January. The image shows text that reads “Maniac Cop by NWR” with a caption that reads “2027”.
Additionally, Goodfellas’ world sales label The Veterans is handling international sales on the film with Mubi is bankrolling the pic and has taking rights for North America, Latin America, the UK & Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Benelux, Turkey, Australia & New Zealand. The news comes following Refn’s rousing Cannes premiere this week for his latest thriller, Her Private Hell which received a 12-minute ovation.
William Lustig directed the original 1988 film with actor Bruce Campbell and Tom Atkins in the story a cop framed for the death of his wife and forced to unfold a police cover-up conspiracy involving a near-invincible killer in uniform leaving nothing but a trail of blood and bodies. The title role was initially etched in film history by late actor Robert Z’Dar who appeared in the two sequels that followed.
Over time, the project once had John Hyams (Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning) tapped to direct from a script by Ed Brubaker. Refn launched partnership and financing initiatives a year later with Wild Bunch taking up international sales in the following year, before deciding on a Maniac Cop series for HBO and Canal+.
It’s been seven years since, and as casting plot details on the new Maniac Cop movie remain pending. Refn will also steer the film via his NWR Originals label with Christina Erritzøe and Kimberly Willming, and with Goodfellas’ Vincent Maraval exec producing.
“The concept has always appealed to me,” said Refn in a statement. “In today’s political and social climate, the iconography of Maniac Cop alone provokes an immediate, uneasy reaction. I’ve been watching it all unfold while constructing this project in the shadows… waiting. Now, that moment has finally arrived. The time has come to unveil a radical new vision where there is no protection, no safety net, only mayhem…”
“Maniac Cop in Nicolas’s hands is not a remake. It is a resurrection,” said Efe Cakarel, Founder and CEO of MUBI. “Nicolas has one of the most dangerous imaginations in modern cinema, and he is exactly the filmmaker to reawaken something this iconic. We’re proud to be partnering with him on a film that feels bold, singular and impossible to ignore.”“We have known Nicolas for a long time, and there is nobody better suited to bring this myth back to life,” said Vincent Maraval. “This is not nostalgia. It is a new nightmare, and with MUBI stepping in so decisively, Maniac Cop becomes the kind of ambitious global genre film that buyers and audiences will want to chase.”
Read more at Deadline.
Lead image: Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment
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