‘Maniac Cop’ – Nicolas Winding Refn To Direct Fresh Take on 1980s Slasher Movie
- Kris Avalon
- 3 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Nicolas Winding Refn will direct a new version of “Maniac Cop,” with Mubi providing full financing and a wide theatrical release commitment across multiple territories.
via: Bloody Disgusting
Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, The Neon Demon, Her Private Hell) has announced this afternoon that he’s finally bringing his long in development Maniac Cop remake to the screen.
First conceived as a feature then reworked as a series for HBO, the new take on the 1988 slasher is once again set up as a feature, with MUBI now on board to finance the movie.
Deadline reports, “We hear that Refn is shooting Maniac Cop in LA this January. Casting is forthcoming. Refn is also producing through his NWR Originals banner, with Christina Erritzøe and Kimberly Willming acting as Executive Producers. Vincent Maraval will Executive Produce for GoodFellas. Veterans will handle sales for the rest of the world.”
“Mubi is fully bankrolling Maniac Cop and has taken distribution rights for North America, Latin America, the UK & Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Benelux, Turkey, Australia & New Zealand. Mubi has committed to a wide theatrical release,” the outlet’s report continues.
In the original Maniac Cop from director William Lustig, innocent people are brutally killed on the streets of New York by a uniformed police officer. A young cop, Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell), finds himself marked as the chief suspect after his wife is murdered.
As Lieutenant Frank McCrae (Tom Atkins) investigates, the death toll rises and he suspects a mysterious police cover-up. This maniac cop (Robert Z’Dar) must be stopped, but it might not be so easy. He seems inhuman, and he’s ready to take on the entire police force.
“The concept has always appealed to me,” Nicolas Winding Refn said in a statement to Deadline this week. “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,” Refn’s official statement continues.
“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.”
Expect NWR’s Maniac Cop sometime in 2027.
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