Drive Director May Be Reworking Maniac Cop!

Lord of bloodletting working to bring back psychotic copper.

By Brad Williams /

For those of us still crushing on Ryan Gosling and listening to 'Nightcall' on a loop, I have some good news...well, half and half. Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn will be acting as producer for a prequel/remake of B-movie horror/actioner 'Maniac Cop' with co-producer William Lustig - the original film's director. Lustig has also brought on board his old Maniac Cop screenwriter Larry Cohen. Maniac Cop was a trilogy of films in the late 80's to early 90's which depicted a cop who was a...manic...and went around murdering people. Some other cops, good ones, worked on finding and stopping said nut job. It was all very 'video nasties' era kitsch. Here is a trailer, just to give you a flavour, "you can fight him or remain silent....forever!"Now that you've seen the trailer, don't get too excited/angry yet, as €œthe project isn€™t 100% signed off on...€ In a recent interview with DailyGrindhouse.Com, Cohen said:
€œI am really excited to come back to this world especially since Nick is going to be a part of it...Nick has been talking to us about it for a while now and I had an idea that would work so we€™re going to do it.€
Cohen is probably better known for his triple threat (to humanity) of being screenwriter on the Colin Farrell vehicle 'Phone Booth', Chris Evans' breakout 'Cellular' and that torture porn film with Jack Bauer's hot daughter, 'Captivity'. DailyGrindhouse state that Cohen is certain of the film maintaining a noirish comic book feel synonymous with the originals. But no word yet if he intends on making the film worth watching, The news that Refn is joining the project could be a real golden goose, as lets be honest, no one really wants to see Maniac Cop Matt Cordell back on the screen - he hardly has the draw of Michael Myers or Leatherface. There is a strong chance that the mere mention of the Scandinavian film maker, will attract a plethora of interest...hell, he might even end up directing. Although the film's universe is very different to that of Refn's last outing, it is still very much a neo-noir homage to 80's ultra-violence. After watching Valhalla Rising, one can only imagine what rivers of crimson will run when and if shooting begins (both with cameras and firearms). Whatever happens, I'm sure that original Maniac Robert Z'Dar has a pretty loose schedule these days, so they might be able to entice the genuine article back into the series.