'Maniac Cop' Reboot Director Claims Project Still Moving Forward

The Maniac Cop franchise is one of the more absurd and entertaining genre series of the '80s and '90s, earning the zombie revenge slasher a passionate cult following over the years. After many conflicting reports about a remake of the property moving forward, the film's reported director, John Hyams, claims the film is, in fact, still happening.

"It'd seem like nothing's happening, but actually quite a bit is happening with it," Hyams shared with Birth.Movies.Death. "We've been working on it for a few years now, with some starts and stops. But it is going to happen. Right now, Nic Refn, our producer, who is an amazing filmmaker and a really great guy – he's stuck by me this whole time and hasn't let up, which I'm deeply thankful for and inspired by – is getting everything set. But between Ed Brubaker and myself, we are developing it, and it actually just took an interesting turn recently."

He added, "This is all stuff I'm going to be able to talk about a little more in the coming months, but things are definitely coming together on it."

These recent comments are a drastic difference from comments made by the original film's writer, Larry Cohen, who expressed last fall that the remake was virtually dead.

"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," Cohen reportedly shared at a screening of Maniac Cop 2, according to Birth.Movies.Death.

Refn, who gained much critical acclaim with films like Drive and The Neon Demon, was seemingly the driving force behind obtaining the funds necessary for the film, but Cohen claimed the filmmaker's clout wasn't enough.

"As far as I know, he was the one trying to get the money raised to make the picture, and he didn't get it, so now it's not happening," Cohen shared. "If it is, I would like to be paid, or I'm going to call my lawyer, and it's getting shut down."

Understandably, the writer is protective of the series he created, and while Ed Brubaker is a lauded comic book writer, Cohen didn't think Brubaker's script met his own personal standards.

"Ed Brubaker wrote the script, and I've read the script, and it's not very good," Cohen divulged. "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."

Hopefully Hyams' comments are accurate and we can expect to see the film move forward.

Would you be excited to see a Maniac Cop remake? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T Birth.Movies.Death.]