WWE star CM Punk shines in his latest role as an evil vampire cop.
Night Patrol is an action-horror movie about an LAPD officer who discovers his department’s task force is hiding a secret. The titular night patrol is actually a group of vampires targeting the housing projects that the protagonist grew up in. He is then forced to team up with local gangs to protect his neighborhood and fight the undead cops, which results in some bloody and gory battles.
WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard spoke with Night Patrol director Ryan Prows about CM Punk’s role in the film and how much fun it was to work with the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Prows, a wrestling fan himself, said it was refreshing and impressive to see just how committed Punk was to the project.
“Once he took a read, I was just so stoked that he was available and excited about it and ready to do it. We immediately hopped on writing a couple of speeches for him to give. Just because once you got such a good talker in the movie, you got to let him run.”
CM Punk plays a role that is very uncharacteristic of his WWE persona
Night Patrol sees CM Punk play a cop who breaks the rules and exhibits other behavior that is not very straight-edge. In many ways, it’s his biggest “heel run” he’s had as a performer in several years. Prows says they did try to be respectful of Punk’s lifestyle. However, the WWE star was ready for anything, noting that he was an actor playing a role.
“We were trying to be respectful, obviously. We got to figure out, ‘Are you cool with this’ or whatever. [But] he was like, ‘I’m an actor, man. I’m ready to do it.’ So yeah, he did a great job with all that. And, kudos to him for [having] a fearlessness of he’s playing just an awful, awful person. And he’s like doing it without a wink.
“[He was] actually just sort of saying awful things and doing awful things and is like fully committed to it. So that was definitely—you obviously assume or hope that that’s going to be the case, but I was really impressed with just how ready he was once he committed to it and how much he gave for it. So it was incredible to work with him.”
Ryan Prows got to live out his wrestling nerd dreams on the Night Patrol set
Prows said he had a great dynamic with CM Punk on the set. They worked closely on getting many fight scenes correct, with Prows often peppering in some playful banter about Punk making a comeback and giving receipts.
“With the wrestling stuff, I just kept needling him a little bit, messing with him a bit, where I was just like, ‘Hey, are we hitting this spot hard enough?’ Or, he got tagged on his hands during a take with a prop weapon. And I was like, ‘Are you going to get payback?’ He’s like, ‘Come on, man…’ So it was just super nerdy fun to just be hanging out with a wrestling superstar.”
CM Punk’s WWE role played an influence on how he looks in the final film. Prows can’t wait for fans to see how good Punk is on screen, noting that he hopes it stamps out some of the misconceptions about Punk as an actor.
“I’m excited about how good he is in it, too. And again, like I said, the fact that he really committed and is playing a part and doing incredible with it. So I’m just excited to see people’s reaction to kind of his performance as well. Because I feel like he gets a little short stick sometimes, or gets static in the film world. But yeah, he’s awesome. He’s obviously such a nice, lovable dude as well. And he was just down for the cause, like I said, fully committed once he was on board. So it was just refreshing to kind of be like that.”
Night Patrol adds a fresh twist to vampire lore
Night Patrol never lets up during its 104-minute run time. Prows hopes fans enjoy the cultural elements and the new angle the film adds to the vampires versus humans war. He also hopes Night Patrol is a worthy addition to the lore that builds upon the stories that have been told.
“We referenced a lot of different vampire movies. We keep calling the cryptozoologist [group in the film] ‘bloods.’ In our mind, those guys have seen every vampire movie. The fun is then trying to figure out which vampires are you up against in this, what the weaknesses are, whatever. So hopefully, this contributes to that, and somebody can take what we’ve added to the lore and build on it as well; that would be fun.”
Night Patrol will be in theatres on January 16, 2026. CM Punk can also be seen on WWE RAW on Netflix every Monday.
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