For more than a decade, “Maniac Cop” has looked like the kind of project Nicolas Winding Refn could not quite shake. A sleazy, violent grindhouse B-movie about murderous police iconography, urban paranoia, corruption, and a uniform turned into a horror image? That has clearly been sitting in his mind’s eye for years.
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Now, after several false starts, the film is moving forward again. MUBI is fully financing Refn’s new “Maniac Cop” feature and has acquired distribution rights across North America, Latin America, and several European territories (Ren also announced it on Instagram, see below). The company is also planning a wide theatrical release. Production is expected to begin in Los Angeles in January 2027, with casting still to be announced.
Refn will produce through NWR Originals, with Christina Erritzøe and Kimberly Willming executive producing. Vincent Maraval will executive produce for GoodFellas, while Veterans will handle international sales.
The original “Maniac Cop,” released in 1988, was directed by William Lustig and written by Larry Cohen, two major names in grimy New York exploitation cinema. The film starred Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree, William Smith, Robert Z’Dar, and Sheree North, and followed a wave of brutal killings committed by a uniformed police officer who may not be entirely human. Z’Dar played Matt Cordell, the undead former cop whose massive frame and ruined face made him a cult-horror fixture.
“The concept has always appealed to me,” Refn said in a statement. “In today’s political and social climate, the iconography of Maniac Cop alone provokes an immediate, uneasy reaction. I’ve been watching it all unfold while constructing this project in the shadows… waiting. Now, that moment has finally arrived.”
He added, “The time has come to unveil a radical new vision where there is no protection, no safety net, only mayhem.”
Refn has tried to revive “Maniac Cop” before, as far back as 2012. He was attached to produce a version in 2015 that John Hyams was set to direct from a script by Ed Brubaker. That film never materialized. Refn later resurfaced with the project in 2019, this time as a series for HBO and Canal+, again with Hyams involved, before that version stalled as well.
The news also comes as Refn is already back in feature-film mode. His first film in a decade, “Her Private Hell,” premiered out of competition at Cannes this month and is set for release by Neon on July 24, making “Maniac Cop” his next move after a long stretch away from theatrical filmmaking.
So this feels closer to a resurrection than a routine reboot. Refn has long been drawn to an area where pulp, violence, and fetishized imagery turn into nightmarish, and “Maniac Cop” gives him a blunt symbol of fascistic authority to push into the present. “Maniac Cop” is expected to arrive sometime in 2027.
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
