It has been 32 years since a sci-fi action movie hit theaters starring an action movie legend, and there have been talks of a reboot ever since. In 1994, Jean-Claude Van Damme starred in the movie Timecop, an action thriller directed by Peter Hyams. What a lot of people might not know is that this wasn’t just another Van Damme action movie, and it was actually based on a comic book by the same name. The source material was the 1992 anthology comic series Dark Horse Comics, and the three-part story in it, developed by Mike Richardson, called “Time Cop: A Man Out of Time.” Richardson then co-wrote the movie script with Mark Verheiden, and Timecopended up as Van Damme’s highest-grossing film as a lead actor.
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Timecop hit theaters on September 16, 1994, and as it celebrates its 32nd anniversary, it is a good time to revisit the film and look ahead to a possible reboot that has been rumored for years.
Timecop Remains One of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Best Movies
Timecop stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as Detective Max Walker, a man who becomes an agent for the Time Enforcement Commission (TEC) after his wife is killed by unknown assailants. In this world, time travel is possible, but only by going back in time, which creates ripples that reshape the present. Time travel to the future remains impossible. Walker works for a task force whose purpose is to prevent anyone from altering history by traveling to the past. Walker’s wife is killed in 1994, and the story picks up 10 years later when Walker is now a veteran agent.
The movie is deeper than most Van Damme action flicks, thanks mostly to the time travel aspects and the twists and turns of the story where even those close to Walker and the TEC might be using time travel for nefarious purposes. The movie was a huge success. It made $102 million at the box office on a budget of between $27 million and $28 million, and it received mixed reviews from critics. Van Damme received praise for his performance, although the direction and storyline were criticized in most reviews. It should be noted that many critics were comparing it to The Terminator, which was always going to be an unfair comparison.
However, time has been kind to Timecop. This remains among the best of Van Damme’s starring movie roles, and the story is a step above his normal martial arts releases. Having the comic book writer pen the script helped, and Timecop was able to become a franchise thanks to the success the film enjoyed and its subsequent life on home video. A movie sequel arrived nine years later called Timecop 2: The Berlin Decision, although Van Damme did not return and Jason Scott Lee took the lead role instead. In between those movies, there was a Timecop TV show that ran for less than a season, with only nine of the 13 planned episodes airing.
Even bigger was its mass appeal. Another Timecop comic book adaptation was written to coincide with the film’s release. There was also a trilogy of Timecop novels written by author Dan Parkinson, with the books released in 1998 and 1999. Finally, a Timecopvideo game was made for the Super Nintendo in 1995.
What We Know About a Timecop Reboot
There has been talk of a Timecop reboot for several years. In fact, Universal Studios hired Mark Gunn and Brian Gunn (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) in 2014 to write the script, but that never ended up getting made. The main thought at the time was that Timecop could be successful again after the success of Rian Johnson’s Looper. There was no talk at the time of whether Jean-Claude Van Damme would have anything to do with the movie, although Mike Richardson would return as an executive producer.
With the movie turning 32 years old, it is a perfect time to create a new Timecop movie, and enough time has passed to do it without Van Damme’s involvement, since it would be brand-new to an entire generation of moviegoers. The idea of time travel and time loop movies remains a popular sci-fi trope, so there could be a huge audience for it. However, with over a decade passing since the last news of a reboot, there is no telling if this comic book movie will get a redo or if it will just remain a cult classic curiosity from the 1990s.
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