Maniac Cop remake no longer happening?

A remake of Larry Cohen’s “Maniac Cop” has gone the way of… well, so, so many follow-ups to exisiting brands. And while fans may be disappointed, doesn’t sound like Cohen is.

In March it was reported that “Drive” director Nicolas Winding Refn had turned in a script to Ed Brubaker that got a green light on the spot.

Not to say that wasn’t the case, but according to Cohen in an interview with Birth.Movies.Death, the project is now dead.

“As far as I know, that’s not happening anymore, and if it is, they might be trying to keep it a secret, as they’d owe me $250,000. Ed Brubaker wrote the script, and I’ve read the script, and it’s not very good. Ed Brubaker is a very good writer of comic books, I think. But if he’s written a good script for a movie, I haven’t read it.

I wrote six new scenes for the picture, based on what I’d read. And, had I written the whole script, the movie would probably be happening, as the script would be good. I wrote three films for Bill Lustig, though they changed a lot of [Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence] and Bill got fired from it…and I would’ve written the fourth movie, had they asked. But they didn’t, and now it’s not getting made.”

The script’s plot was said to be reminiscent of Neil Jordan’s “Mona Lisa”.