MANIAC COP Remake Finds Director in UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING's John Hyams
A couple of years ago, word came out that Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn would be producing a prequel to William Lustig's 1988 exploitation film Maniac Cop. Development has been quiet in the meantime, but now the project — which is no longer a prequel and now looks to be a straight-up remake — has finally found a director.
Twitch reports that Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning director John Hyams will direct the movie, and Hyams confirmed the news to them in a DM, which you can see here:
With Eisner Award-winning comic writer Brubaker on script duties and the genre-loving Refn producing, this might be one of the rare remakes that overshadows the original. Hyams has only directed a few movies, but Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is beloved by fans of the UniSol franchise (I saw it and was mostly baffled at what the hell was happening, aside from a few nicely done action sequences), so maybe he'll bring the same energetic insanity to this remake.
Also worth noting: this movie is going to be a lot more resonant now than it would have been a few years ago, considering the recent actions of some of the police departments in this country. Whereas it may have flown a little under the radar back in 2012, I'm guessing a lot of eyes will be on this one if it actually gets made any time soon.
Here's the trailer for the original movie (which featured Bruce Campbell in a small role), and then the trailer for Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning below that to get an idea of Hyams' style: