Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn is due to return with a long-discussed remake of Maniac Cop, set to film this year according to the original’s filmmaker. Terrifyingly, it’s almost a decade since maverick filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn’s last movie: gory fashion industry satire, The Neon Demon. After that film generated divisive reviews from critics but ... Nicolas Winding Refn’s remake of 1988’s Maniac Cop set to film in 2026
Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn is due to return with a long-discussed remake of Maniac Cop, set to film this year according to the original’s filmmaker.
Terrifyingly, it’s almost a decade since maverick filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn’s last movie: gory fashion industry satire, The Neon Demon.
After that film generated divisive reviews from critics but less cash than it cost to make (this writer really liked it, for whatever that’s worth), Refn has busied himself with TV shows and other projects. There were his more personal shows, Too Old To Die Young and Copenhagen Cowboy, and more curiously, an adaptation of Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five.
Now, it sounds as though Refn’s returning to his more usual territory – mixing arthouse imagery with moments of action or violence straight out of a retro exploitation movie. According to filmmaker William Lustig, Refn’s set to begin filming the slasher thriller remake Maniac Cop later this year.
Lustig directed the original Maniac Cop in 1988, and it’s the proud owner of one of the best taglines ever: “You have the right to remain silent… forever.”
Written and produced by another great maverick filmmaker, Larry Cohen, it dares to ask the question: what if a New York police officer didn’t protect the local population, but terrorised them instead? Tom Atkins plays Lieutenant McCrae, who’s on the trail of a killer with a badge and gun, while Bruce Campbell plays a young cop wrongly suspected of the crimes.
Read more: God Told Me To | What modern cinema could learn from a low-budget, 50 year-old thriller
It’s one of those films that only looks more captivating with age, with a cast also including Richard Roundtree and Robert Z’Dar (the latter playing the titular Maniac Cop here and in two sequels) plus cameos from Sam Raimi and boxer Jake LaMotta – the subject of Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull and Lustig’s uncle.
Refn’s been talking about making a new Maniac Cop for years – initially as a TV show. Speaking on the YouTube show Icons Of Fright (via World Of Reel), however, Lustig says that Refn is preparing to shoot the film in the autumn. The delay, Lustig explained, was due to complications with Larry Cohen’s estate after he passed away in 2019.
“What happened with Maniac Cop was, we had everything set up, we had financing in place, we’re moving ahead, Larry Cohen dies,” Lustig said. “Suddenly, we’re forced to deal with his estate… it took several years to settle it. Now Nic has it as his next project, that will shoot in the fall.”
Confirming that it’s now a film rather than a TV show, Lustig said that HBO spent “a million dollars” developing Maniac Cop scripts, before the channel ended up under the Warner Bros banner following Discovery’s sale in 2022. Discovery, looking at the project, said, “We’re not in the Maniac Cop business.”
The scripts were handed back, and now Maniac Cop: the movie remake is on the way.
That, to us, sounds rather exciting. We’ll bring you more as we hear it. Do listen to the Lustig interview in full – it’s full of anecdotes from the filmmaker’s long career in horror and genre cinema.
