Nicolas Winding Refn Producing ‘Maniac Cop’ Prequel
Posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 by Russ Fischer
The films of William Lustig are crude exploitation, but they’re strange and entertaining enough to find new groups of fans every few years. Maniac, for example is a chilly ride, and a film that is currently being remade with Elijah Wood as the unlikely but compelling choice for the title character. Vigilante is a Death Wish- and poliziotteschi-influenced urban crime movie with a cartoonish tone balanced by Robert Forster.
Then there are the Maniac Cop films: a bizarro trilogy of increasingly silly tales centered on killings perpetrated by a vengeful/evil/supernatural police officer.
The original film starred genre stalwarts Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Richard Roundtree, and the massive-jawed Robert Z’Dar as the title character. Writer Larry Cohen (also a schlock master, thanks to films like Q, God Told Me To, and It’s Alive!) and Lustig have been working to produce a new Maniac Cop film.
And now they’ve got company. Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive, Pusher, Bronson) is on board to produce the movie that will be a prequel of sorts to Lustig’s original 1988 picture. Read More »
