The Cops series was an action-comedy film series released between 1998 and 2012 made up of four films, the first three produced by famous Lovian production company Transbaum Films and the fourth one by its main rival, Lovilago Film. The films were consistently box-office successes despite receiving largely negative reviews from film critics and remain popular with audiences to this day.
The first three films focused on two cops from the Noble City Police (now the Federal Police) trying to stop thugs from building a nuclear bomb; when the fourth part was being made, the directors thought it would be "boring" and "unoriginal" to use the same plot as the previous three films have, so the fourth part focused on the cops travelling overseas to Senan, where an old enemy, a mentally-disturbed crime lord plans to kill every major politician in Lovia along with them.
Films[]
Background[]
The Cops series was the brainchild of comedian and television director and screenwriter Nathan Kelly, and was originally envisioned as a satire of American police procedural television shows such as Law & Order and Miami Vice combined with films such as Beverly Hills Cop and Police Academy, all of which were popular on Lovian television in the early-to-mid 1990s and occupied similar slots to Mother!, on which Kelly worked. In his own words, Kelly wanted to "take what made those films and shows so well-known and loved and flip it on its head!", also wanting to prove to the world that “[Lovia] can actually make action movies.” The satirical elements also extended to the series’ portrayal of Lovian society as a whole, with sarcastic and humorously exaggerated depictions of the country’s government and mass media present across all four films. To bring his vision of a "demented police comedy" to life Kelly teamed up with film producer Louis McCain in July 1995 and set to work laying down the outline for the first film in the series; Kelly and McCain became close friends throughout their period of collaboration and in January 1996 pitched the concept to production company Transbaum Films. Transbaum initially bristled at the thought of financing something so "outrageous" despite their record of producing and releasing similarly violent action films such as the controversial Black Ops series, and so Kelly and McCain approached other production companies with their idea.
A change in management ensued at Transbaum in June of that same year and the new staffers were far more receptive to the concept for the film; having failed to pitch his concept for the film to any of the major Lovian film studios Kelly began to consider finding an American agent to try and get the film made in the United States, but McCain convinced him to try Transbaum again. Intent on traveling to Hollywood to pitch his script with what little money he had left Kelly begrudgingly approached the new Transbaum chief, American-born businessman Harry Kowalczyk in early July with his concept for Cops, and to his surprise Kowalczyk liked the script and found it "hilarious". He offered to finance the film for a sum of $1.1 million (1996 USD) on the condition that the script’s more questionable content be toned down to make it more palatable for general audiences, a steep contrast to the edgy R-rated comedy Kelly was intending to make. Running out of options Kelly exasperatedly agreed to Kowalczyk’s stipulation and toned the script down “to a run-of-the-mill PG-13” in under a week for Transbaum’s review; the new script for Cops was soon greenlit and pre-production began in August. Kelly eventually developed a fairly close bond with Kowalczyk during pre-production despite the large age difference between the two men, and dedicated the finished film to his memory after his passing from heart disease in December 1997.
The series marked the film debuts of its three leads—comedian and television actor William “Billy” Harris, who notably starred on the 1980s-90s television series Ocean Heights; businessman Matt Richards; and budding actress Sarah Williams. The three became acquainted with each other at Blackburn University in Newhaven years prior but fell completely out of contact following graduation, with only Harris finding any initial success as an actor and Richards attempting to pursue a career in computer programming in Silicon Valley.