Timecop (franchise)

Last updated
Timecop franchise
Timecop2cover.JPG
Cover of Timecop comic book that originated the franchise.
Created by Mike Richardson
Mark Verheiden
Original work"Time Cop: A Man Out of Time" (comic book)
Print publications
Novel(s)
  • The Scavenger (1998)
  • Viper’s Spawn (1998)
  • Blood Ties (1999)
Comics Timecop
Films and television
Film(s)
Television series Timecop
Games
Traditional Timecop (SNES)

Timecop is an American science fiction franchise about a police force that regulates time travel, set in the near future. It started as a three-part story titled "Time Cop: A Man Out of Time", in a 1992 Dark Horse anthology comic, which inspired the 1993 TV series Time Trax [ citation needed ] and 1994 film Timecop starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film was a box office success, and inspired a video game for SNES, a single-season ABC TV series, three novels, and a sequel in 2003.

Contents

Films

Timecop (1994)

The film adaptation of "Time Cop: A Man in Time" was directed by Peter Hyams and produced by Sam Raimi and Moshe Diamant. Jean-Claude Van Damme played police officer Max Walker, who is recruited by the Time Enforcement Commission (TEC) in 1994 to bring a rogue politician, Senator Aaron McComb (Ron Silver), to justice. Through his investigation, Walker discovers that the senator is also responsible for numerous other previously unconnected crimes, including the earlier death of his wife, played by Mia Sara.

Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision (2003)

Timecop 2 was directed by Steve Boyum and written by Gary Scott Thompson. Van Damme did not return—the lead role was instead fulfilled by Jason Scott Lee. Lee plays TEC agent Ryan Chung, who has to stop Brandon Miller, the head of an agency supervising TEC, who intends to change history by assassinating Adolf Hitler in 1940. The film was released in 2003 directly to home video.

Future

In 2014, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Universal Studios was developing a reboot of Timecop due to the success of the 2012 time travelling film Looper . Richardson was to be the executive producer. [1] Universal was reportedly throwing into development a remake of Timecop, the 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme time travel action movie.

Marc Shmuger would produce the film via his Universal-based Global Produce banner alongside Tom McNulty.

It is still unclear whether the reboot is still in development

Television

Timecop (1997–1998)

Following the film's success, American Broadcasting Company ordered a series based on Timecop. They agreed to produce 13 episodes on a $15 million budget. Universal Television produced the resulting series, using the same title as the film. Mark Verheiden wrote the screenplay for the pilot. [2]

The show was first aired in 1997. [2] None of the cast or characters from the film reprised their roles in the series. Ted King starred in a breakout role as TEC agent Jack Logan (a character later used in the novels) who hunts down rogue travelers and brings them to justice before they can alter the past. Due to low ratings and poor advertising, the series was cut short after less than a season, and only nine out of the thirteen episodes were aired. [3]

Other media

Comics

Mike Richardson, the founder of Dark Horse Comics, wrote a three-issue story titled "Time Cop: A Man Out of Time". The story was included in issues No. 1–3 of the Dark Horse Comics anthology series in 1992. [4] [5] Richardson developed the story, while the comic was written by Mark Verheiden and drawn by Ron Randall. The plot of the comic differs from film's plot, but Max Walker is the protagonist of both works.

Richardson and Verheiden went on to write the screenplay for the film. [4] They also published a two-issue comic book adaptation of the film in September 1994, coinciding with the film's release.

Novels

Dan Parkinson wrote an adventure trilogy based on the Timecop series, covering Jack Logan's further hunts for rogue time travellers who try to alter the past. [6] Published by Del Rey Books, the trilogy consisted of The Scavenger (August 1998), Viper's Spawn (September 1998) and Blood Ties (March 1999).

Video games

A side-scrolling action game based on the Timecop film was produced by Cryo Interactive for Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. The game is notable for being one of the first to use digitized images of the film's cast to portray game characters—live actors had been filmed in front of a bluescreen. The player has to stop Dr. Hans Kleindast, the inventor of time travel, following him through various time periods throughout the game's 15 levels. [7]

Although the game was only released for the Super NES, a version was also developed for the Sega CD, with a short demo being distributed with the May 1995 issue of the European Sega Pro magazine. [8] Despite being fully completed by the developer, JVC Musical Industries choose not to publish the Sega CD version. In 2007, a complete version of the game was eventually released on the Internet by the Sega CD version coder. [9] [ unreliable source? ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Claude Van Damme</span> Belgian actor and martial artist (born 1960)

Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist and actor. Born and raised in Brussels, his father enrolled him in a Shotokan karate school at the age of ten, which led Van Damme to hold the rank of 2nd-dan black belt in karate, and compete in several karate and kickboxing competitions. With the desire of becoming an actor, he moved to the United States in 1982, where he did odd jobs and worked on several films, until he got his break as the lead in the martial arts film Bloodsport (1988).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dark Horse Comics</span> American comic book and manga publisher

Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon, comic book shops known as Pegasus Books and founded in 1980.

Mia Sarapochiello, known professionally as Mia Sara, is an American actress. She made her film debut as Princess Lili in the fantasy film Legend (1985), and had her breakthrough role starring as Sloane Peterson in the comedy film Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). She also portrayed Melissa Walker in the science fiction film Timecop (1994), which won her the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Peter Hyams is an American film director, screenwriter and cinematographer known for directing 1977 conspiracy thriller film Capricorn One, the 1981 science fiction-thriller Outland, the 1984 science fiction film 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the 1986 action/comedy Running Scared, the comic book adaptation Timecop, the action film Sudden Death, and the horror films The Relic and End of Days.

<i>Street Fighter</i> (1994 film) 1994 film by Steven E. de Souza

Street Fighter is a 1994 action film written and directed by Steven E. de Souza, based on the video game series of the same name produced by Capcom. It was one of two films released in 1994 specifically adapting Street Fighter II, following Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Distributed by Universal Pictures in the United States and Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International internationally, the film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raul Julia along with supporting performances by Byron Mann, Damian Chapa, Kylie Minogue, Ming-Na Wen and Wes Studi. The adaptation focuses on the efforts by Colonel Guile to bring down General M. Bison (Julia), the military dictator and drug kingpin of Shadaloo City who aspires to conquer the world with an army of genetic supersoldiers, while enlisting the aid of street fighters Ryu (Mann) and Ken (Chapa) to infiltrate Bison's empire and help destroy it from within.

<i>Timecop</i> 1994 film by Peter Hyams

Timecop is a 1994 American science fiction action film directed by Peter Hyams and co-written by Mike Richardson and Mark Verheiden. Richardson also served as executive producer. The film is based on Timecop, a story created by Richardson, written by Verheiden, and drawn by Ron Randall, which appeared in the anthology comic Dark Horse Comics, published by Dark Horse Comics. It is the first installment in the Timecop franchise.

<i>Universal Soldier</i> (1992 film) 1992 film by Roland Emmerich

Universal Soldier is a 1992 American military science-fiction action film directed by Roland Emmerich, produced by Allen Shapiro, Craig Baumgarten, and Joel B. Michaels, and written by Richard Rothstein, Christopher Leitch, and Dean Devlin. The film tells the story of Luc Deveraux, portrayed by Jean-Claude Van Damme, a former U.S. Army soldier who was killed in the Vietnam War in 1969, and returned to life following a secret military project called the "Universal Soldier" program. However, he finds out about his past, though his memory was erased, and escapes alongside a young TV journalist. Along the way, they have to deal with the return of his archenemy, Sgt. Andrew Scott, who had lost his sanity in the Vietnam War, and became a psychotic megalomaniac, intent on killing him and leading the Universal Soldiers.

<i>Sudden Death</i> (1995 film) 1995 American film

Sudden Death is a 1995 American action-thriller film directed by Peter Hyams and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Powers Boothe, Raymond J. Barry, and Dorian Harewood. The film pits a lone fire marshal against extortionists who hold unsuspecting NHL players and fans for ransom during game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, and set payment milestones to coincide with the game's progress. It was Hyams' second directorial collaboration with Van Damme, after Timecop (1994) and before Enemies Closer (2013).

Dark Horse Entertainment is a motion picture and television production arm of American comic book publishing company Dark Horse Comics, founded in 1992. They also have a sub-label, Dark Horse Indie. They have their headquarters in Milwaukie, Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Verheiden</span> American screenwriter

Mark Verheiden is an American television, movie, and comic-book writer. He was a co-executive producer for the television series Falling Skies for DreamWorks Television and the TNT network.

<i>Timecop</i> (comics)

Timecop was originally published as a three-part story, "Time Cop: A Man Out of Time", in the anthology comic Dark Horse Comics and spawned the successful film Timecop.

Timecop is an American science fiction television series. The show was broadcast on the ABC network and first aired in 1997. The series is based on the successful Jean-Claude Van Damme film, Timecop (1994) from Universal Studios, which was in turn inspired by the Dark Horse comic of the same name. Thirteen episodes of the series were ordered, but only nine episodes aired.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott Adkins</span> British actor

Scott Edward Adkins is a British actor and martial artist. He gained prominence with his villainous portrayal of the Russian prison fighter Yuri Boyka in the American martial arts film Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006), a role he reprised in its sequels Undisputed III: Redemption (2010) and Boyka: Undisputed (2017). He has since made films in a variety of genres, such as crime dramas, martial arts movies, war films, action thrillers, sci-fi actioners and action comedies, mostly as the lead.

<i>Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision</i> 2003 American direct-to-video film

Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision is a 2003 American direct-to-video cyberpunk science fiction action film directed by Steve Boyum. The film is based on the comic book of the same name by Mike Richardson and Mark Verheiden, and is a sequel to 1994's Timecop starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film stars Jason Scott Lee, with a supporting cast of Thomas Ian Griffith, Mary Page Keller and John Beck. The film was released on DVD and VHS in the United States on September 30, 2003. It is the second installment in the Timecop film series. The film introduces new characters and takes place twenty one years after the previous film.

<i>Universal Soldier</i> (film series) Series of military science fiction action films

Universal Soldier is a series of military science fiction action films. The franchise began in 1992 with Universal Soldier and as of 2012 comprises six entries. The films centered on the character of Luc Deveraux until Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, which focuses on a new protagonist named John.

Andrew Cosby is an American comic book creator, film producer, and screenwriter. He is the co-creator of the SyFy TV series Eureka, and the co-founder of Boom! Studios.

<i>Timecop</i> (video game) 1995 video game

Timecop is a side-scrolling action video game produced by Cryo Interactive for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. It is based on the 1994 film of the same title and takes place after the events of the film. Despite the use of digitized actors to portray the characters in the game, Jean-Claude Van Damme was not used to pose as protagonist Max Walker. Levels range from locales in the past, the present day, and a dystopian Los Angeles of the distant future.

Daniel Edward Parkinson was an American author who produced over 40 books published in several genres, including naval fiction, westerns, science fiction and fantasy novels. He was born in Liberal, Kansas.

Timecop may refer to:

References

  1. Kit, Borys (9 April 2014). "'Timecop' Reboot Snags 'Journey 2' Writers". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 19 June 2017.
  2. 1 2 Lowry, Brian (October 10, 1996). "ABC Invests $15 Million in 'Timecop'". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved August 31, 2010.
  3. Garcia, Frank (28 March 2012). Science Fiction Television Series, 1990-2004: Histories, Casts and Credits for 58 Shows. McFarland. ISBN   9780786491834.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  4. 1 2 Cohen, Jason (April 20, 2017). "15 Adaptations More Famous Than the Original Comics". CBR.com. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
  5. Time Cop: "A Man Out of Time" at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original )
  6. Garcia, Frank (28 March 2012). Science Fiction Television Series, 1990-2004: Histories, Casts and Credits for 58 Shows. McFarland. ISBN   978-0786469178.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  7. "Timecop for SNES (1995)". MobyGames . Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  8. "Sega Mega CD demo information". Sega Mega CD Library. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  9. New unreleased game, archived from the original on 2012-03-26, retrieved 2015-07-26