When the news comes that a Maniac Cop remake is coming, most people might just roll their eyes. How many of these old cheesy slasher-styled remakes can Hollywood churn out. However, when the talent on-board includes Nicolas Winding Refn and William Lustig, film fans sit up and take notice.
Now, another huge name has joined the project – especially if you are a fan of fantastically written comic books. Ed Brubaker will write the Maniac Cop remake. The news comes from Screen Daily, who also reported that the movie will be shopped at Cannes along with a sequel for Spring Breakers.
So, for non-comic book fans, who is Ed Brubaker? Well, he is the man who created the character of The Winter Soldier, who most the world met when they made Captain America: The Winter Soldier the highest grossing political thriller of all time. He also wrote some of the best Captain America comics ever produced. The guy is a classic hard boiled Noir writer.
And now he is writing the Maniac Cop remake. Something tells me this won’t be the same Maniac Cop that co-starred Bruce Campbell and Tom Atkins so many years ago. Of course, that should have been obvious when Nicolas Winding Refn came on as producer. Look at his filmography, with titles like Drive and Bronson proving he is a director who likes to take chances. The ideas of what this new remake could be like makes this a remake that I can get behind.
With Brubaker onboard, there looks to be a good chance that this will be more of a crime movie and less of a slasher. Or, maybe it will be a slasher based around a great crime story. Either way, they have a quality writer on the project. With Lustig there as a producer, the Maniac Cop remake should make fans of the original happy while giving newer fans something completely different.