Movies
‘Maniac Cop 4’ Update, ‘Maniac’ Remake Announced
This past Friday director/DVD distributor William Lustig chatted with fans on Fangoria Radio where he revealed that he will not only be working on a fourth MANIAC COP film, but also will be remaking MANIAC, his first genre effort from 1980 where a schizoid serial killer randomly stalks and kills various young women in New York, which he sees as revenge for the mistreatment he got while being raised by his own abusive mother. Read on for the skinny!
“The MANIAC remake keeps threatening to happen,” Lustig told Fangoria Radio. “I’ve been talking [with various parties] for nine months to untangle the rights. I think it will happen.” Companies in the U.S. and Europe have been vying to update his gory slasher hit starring Joe Spinell, though Lustig admits that the late actor, who also co-produced the 1981 film, is irreplaceable. “I can’t imagine anyone else in that role,” he said.
While they work on getting this made, Lustig talked a bit about the progress of MANIAC COP 4:
“We’re going to reinvent the series with MANIAC COP 4,” Lustig said, adding that original actor Robet Z’Dar will not be donning the blue uniform again. “We want to start fresh. We replowed the field already.“
It’s been sixteen years since Freddy Krueger was last seen in the Nightmare on Elm Street reboot movie starring Jackie Earle Haley, with complicated rights issues playing a role in the franchise’s complete and total silence over the past several years. Today, that silence ends.
According to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter this afternoon, “Paramount Pictures has closed a deal for the U.S. rights to the original screenplay of A Nightmare on Elm Street.”
Paramount’s genre label Paramount Primal is behind the upcoming franchise reboot.
THR explains in further detail, “The U.S. rights are being licensed from the Craven estate, which includes Craven’s widow Iya Labunka and Craven’s son Jonathan Craven. The duo will produce the new iteration with Marc Toberoff, the attorney-turned-producer who specializes in copyright law. J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules will executive produce for Paramount Primal.”
“We look forward to bringing the world of Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street to a new and completely engaged generation of fans,” Iya Labunka said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “We know that Wes would have been thrilled to see how horror is taking its long overdue place in the cultural canon. We can’t wait for all of us to sit together in a dark theatre – around the campfire of today – as the next chapter of the Nightmare story unfolds.”
“We can’t remember a time before we were fans of Wes Craven,” said Lifshitz and Margules. “The fact that Iya and Jonathan have entrusted us with this opportunity to help usher a new story into this world is an honor beyond words. We look forward to working alongside them to bring a terrifying new nightmare to audiences everywhere, and to welcome Freddy home.”
The Elm Street franchise had of course previously had a home at New Line Cinema/Warner Bros., but the Craven Estate was able to regain the rights to the original screenplay. THR notes, “New Line retains the international rights to Nightmare on Elm Street.”
Freddy Krueger’s upcoming return is said to be “set in the world of A Nightmare on Elm Street, based on the original screenplay.” No further details are available at this time.
Will Robert Englund be returning one more time? Stay tuned for updates.
You must be logged in to post a comment.