Nicolas Winding Refn & John Hyams’ MANIAC COP Remake Finally Gets Greenlit

Though he’s worked in television, John Hyams hasn’t had a feature film come out since 2012’s absolutely amazing Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning. Five years is too long a wait for a director this good.

Also in 2012, it was announced that Nicolas Winding Refn was to produce a remake of William Lustig’s Maniac Cop. Eventually it came out that were this to happen, John Hyams would direct. And then we waited.

Now that dream has taken a big step toward reality. Variety reports that the John Hyams Maniac Cop has been greenlit and will shoot this summer from a script written by the great Ed Brubaker with help from Refn.

I can’t imagine a more exciting combination of people working on a cooler project. I really like Maniac Cop (and Maniac Cop 2), but it’s not so precious that I shudder at the idea of someone remaking it, particularly this crew. If it were Len Wiseman I might think differently.

But it’s John Hyams. If you don’t know why that’s exciting, I highly recommend you watch both his Universal Soldier movies (get Day of Reckoning unrated if you can). They will kick you in the ass, I promise. It’s going to be exciting watching this film develop and get cast, and you can bet we’ll be here for it.