Timecop Reboot In The Works Yet Again, Still No Van Damme

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

timecopI love Timecop, I really, really do. Put Jean-Claude Van Damme in anything, and I’ll watch it. That said, I can’t claim that Peter Hyam’s 1994 time travel joint is great cinema. And you have to wonder, if Universal is talking about remaking, or rebooting, or whatever they’re calling it this time, Timecop, are they getting down towards the bottom of the barrel?

Granted, Timecop did make more than $100,000,000 at the box office, and it is Van Damme’s second highest grossing movie to date, behind Kung Fu Panda 2. I’m not going to ask if this is a good idea, or even if this is necessary. No, my only question, Universal, is how the fuck are you going to remake Timecop without Van Damme? Come on. No one else in the world combines a wooden delivery, sweet feathered hair, and splits-doing ability quite like the Muscles from Brussels. Sure, he wasn’t involved in the short-lived TV show or the unfortunate sequel, but still…

For those of you not familiar with this particular bit of science fiction cinema, Timecop is precisely what the title implies, the story of time-travelling law enforcement officers. Set in the futuristic world of 2004, officers of the Time Enforcement Commission leap around in time, stopping those who would use time travel for nefarious purposes and screw with the space-time continuum. It’s a noble pursuit.

As you probably realized, I have some strong feelings on the issue of a Timecop remake. But you’ll also forgive me if I’m skeptical that it will actually happen. The last we heard about a reworking of this property was all the way back in 2010, but by that point it had already been in the works for four years. So right now we’re seven years deep in development, with no real movement to speak of. I could yell about this until I’m blue in the face, but most of me doubts it will ever see the light of day.