Movies
Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Maniac Cop’ Finds Backers
Some big news coming out of Cannes Film Festival as Nicolas Winding Refn’s Space Rocket has partnered with Wild Bunch and Vendian Entertainment of a multi-year first look deal, according to Variety. The first project that will receive production and financing is the remake of the 1988 thriller/horror film Maniac Cop.
Refn is acting as a creative producer on the film, which is being directed by John Hyams (Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning and written by Ed Brubaker (Captain America: The Winter Soldier). The movie is set to shoot this summer in Los Angeles.
According to the site, Maniac Cop, “…follows innocent people who are brutally murdered on the streets of Los Angeles by a uniformed police officer. As the death toll rises and LAPD attempts a cover up, one determined female cop sets out to reveal the truth.”
The original Maniac Cop was directed by William Lustig and starred Tom Atkins and Bruce Campbell with the late Robert Z’Dar playing the title role.
Her Private Hell actor Diego Calva is the latest to join the cast of writer-director Parker Finn‘s remake of Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 psychological horror movie Possession, Deadline reports today.
Calva joins previously announced cast members Margaret Qualley, Callum Turner, and Paul Dano.
Parker Finn is writing, directing and producing the new take on Possession.
No word on character or plot details yet, but the original film starred Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill as married couple Anna and Mark in Cold War-era West Berlin whose relationship spirals into a supernatural nightmare. Suspicions of infidelity soon give way to something much more sinister.
If Finn is adhering closely to the 1981 film, then Calva could be up for playing Heinrich, Anna’s lover who finds himself in way over his head with Anna and Mark’s emotional baggage.
For Possession‘s 40th anniversary, Brian Keiper captures why a remake of this particular film feels so daunting and curious: “Few movies depict emotional turmoil as effectively and daringly as Andrzej Zulawksi’s Possession. It is a challenging and sometimes inscrutable film, both for the mind and the emotions. Zulawski struggles through a number of deep issues throughout the course of the film; issues that speak to some of humanity’s deepest pains and fears. In many ways it is about loss— loss of political ideals, loss of faith, and loss of innocence. But most of all, Possession is about the fear, pain, and anger that comes from the loss of a marriage.”
Isabelle Adjani previously gave the remake, and Qualley’s casting in particular, her blessing.
Producers include Jonathan Fass, Roy Lee, Andrew Childs, and Robert Pattinson. Marc Bienstock will executive produce.