Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence

And I mean, long story short, in terms of William Lustig's involvement in True Romance was he got a payoff so that Tony Scott could go and make the film instead.

And Lustig instead would go off to do Maniac Cop 3.

Both films in the end would come out in 1993.

But Lustig would freely admit by that point he was despondent about this, fed up with the film industry.

In fact, in that interview, he talks about how usually when the producers come in and ask to make changes to a film, he would fight back.

He just had Seven Shades beaten out of him, felt particularly down on Maniac Cop 3 when people came in and said, no, it should be like this, this, this, this, this.

It's just like you finish the film.

It's fine.

See, you know, a few beers, that kind of vibe, that's what you need for those kind of films.

I had a category called Maniacs, which was Maniac and Maniac Cop and Maniac Cop 2 and Maniac Cop 3.

Some Italian late 80s influence stuff as well.

So not so much Dario Argento, but more Lamberto Bava and Michael Suavi.

Okay.

Why not? There's a Maniac Cop 3.

Afraid so.

I am afraid so.

Earlier this year, Johnny and I read all the Maniac Cop novelizations.

Maniac Cop 3 sucks.

And the Maniac Cop 3 novelization went, what if it was just a different story? Because that story sucked.

So what if it was different? And it would be nice to get a satisfying, I'd like to do this someday.

I'd like to shoot Saw 7.

up because I knew it immediately.

That long hallway with all the pipes, that was in Maniac Cop 3.

Okay.

Remember that hallway.

He's learned a few tricks.

Some of these locations are so odd.

Some of them, you know, like the hall from Maniac Cop 3.

Great looking set.

Okay.

He was in Maniac Cop 3 also, but most importantly, he was in the black and white music video by Michael Jackson that I sent to you forever ago when we covered Only the Strong.

He plays Rasta Man in this.

uh

I learned so much from it, and it was just a very rich and, uh, and fun episode.

I got, um, Maniac Cop 3-

Mm-hmm

... where you had Christian Francis on the show.

[laughs]

"... l- let me muster up some compliments for them," uh, maybe for a book that I hated.

But even though, uh, like something like Maniac Cop 3 is a, uh, real r- rough, bad movie, uh, Christian found reasons to justify novelizing it and, uh, built on it in ways that if only the movie had done that.

And, uh, yeah, I, uh, I, I, I really kinda wish that we had access to Randall Boyle, because I think that maybe we would have a lot to talk about with him.

So Friday night was Maniac Cop, and Maniac Cop 2 was on the Saturday night.

And then I don't know why we never rented out Maniac Cop 3, because that came out about a year or so later, but we just never did.

And then I think I started to watch it, and it was dog shit, like I can't do this to myself, [laughs] so I just didn't watch it.

I, um, yeah, it's funny though, because my, my, me and my mum and dad always let me rent whatever the fuck I wanted from a video store.

Oh.

Army of Darkness, uh, Jason Goes to Hell, uh, Body Bags, Maniac Cop 3, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Pumpkinhead 2.

Like, just a lot of really fun shit.

You said he didn't do the second one?